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/ʃɑrk/ Listen

noun

Shark n.

(Zool.) Any one of numerous species of elasmobranch fishes of the order Plagiostomi, found in all seas. Note: Some sharks, as the basking shark and the whale shark, grow to an enormous size, the former becoming forty feet or more, and the latter sixty feet or more, in length. Most of them are harmless to man, but some are exceedingly voracious. The man-eating sharks mostly belong to the genera Carcharhinus, Carcharodon, and related genera. They have several rows of large sharp teeth with serrated edges, as the great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias or Carcharodon Rondeleti) of tropical seas, and the great blue shark (Carcharhinus glaucus syn. Prionace glauca) of all tropical and temperate seas. The former sometimes becomes thirty-six feet long, and is the most voracious and dangerous species known. The rare man-eating shark of the United States coast (Carcharodon Atwoodi) is thought by some to be a variety, or the young, of Carcharodon carcharias. The dusky shark (Carcharhinus obscurus) is a common species on the coast of the United States of moderate size and not dangerous. It feeds on shellfish and bottom fishes. Note: The following is a list of Atlantic Ocean sharks: Common and Scientific Names of Atlantic Sharks (1) Pelagic Sharks Thresher shark (Alopias vulpinus) Bigeye thresher (Alopias superciliosus) Oceanic whitetip shark (Carcharhinus longimanus) Sevengill shark (Heptrachias perlo) Sixgill shark (Hexanchus griseus) Bigeye sixgill shark (Hexanchus vitulus) Shortfin mako (Isurus oxyrinchus) Longfin mako (Isurus paucus) Porbeagle (Lamna nasus) Blue shark (Prionace glauca) (2)Large Coastal Sharks Sandbar shark (Carcharhinus plumbeus) Reef shark (Carcharhinus perezi) Blacktip shark (Carcharhinus limbatus) Dusky shark (Carcharhinus obscurus) Spinner shark (Carcharhinus brevipinna) Silky shark (Carcharhinus falciformis) Bull shark (Carcharhinus leucas) Bignose shark (Carcharhinus altimus) Galapagos shark (Carcharhinus galapagensis) Night shark (Carcharhinus signatus) White shark (Carcharodon carcharias) Basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus) Tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier) Nurse shark (Ginglymostoma cirratum) Lemon shark (Negaprion brevirostris) Ragged-tooth shark (Odontaspis ferox) Whale shark (Rhincodon typus) Scalloped hammerhead (Sphyrna lewini) Great hammerhead (Sphyrna mokarran) Smooth hammerhead (Sphyrna zygaena) (3) Small Coastal Sharks Finetooth shark (Carcharhinus isodon) Blacknose shark (Carcharhinus acronotus) Atlantic sharpnose shark (Rhizoprionodon erraenovae) Caribbean sharpnose shark (Rhizoprionodon porosus) Bonnethead (Sphyrna tiburo) Atlantic angel shark (Squatina dumeril)

A rapacious, artful person; a sharper. (Colloq.)

Trickery; fraud; petty rapine; as, to live upon the shark. (Obs.)

Basking shark, Liver shark, Nurse shark, Oil shark, Sand shark, Tiger shark, etc. See under Basking, Liver, etc. See also Dogfish, Houndfish, Notidanian, and Tope.

Gray shark, the sand shark.

Hammer-headed shark. See Hammerhead.

Port Jackson shark. See Cestraciont.

Shark barrow, the eggcase of a shark; a sea purse.

Shark ray. Same as Angel fish (a), under Angel.

Thrasher shark or Thresher shark, a large, voracious shark. See Thrasher.

Whale shark, a huge harmless shark (Rhinodon typicus) of the Indian Ocean. It becomes sixty feet or more in length, but has very small teeth.

verb

Shark v. t. To pick or gather indiscriminately or covertly. (Obs.)

Shark v. i. (past & past part. sharked; pres. part. sharking)

To play the petty thief; to practice fraud or trickery; to swindle. "Neither sharks for a cup or a reckoning."

To live by shifts and stratagems.

See images of 'Shark'

Etymology of 'Shark'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Shark" Quotes from Famous Books

... like awful well to get my hands on to," declared Santry belligerently. "Damned oily, greedy land shark! All right, all right! Needn't say nothin', Don. You're the brains of this here outfit, an' 'thout you say the word, I'll behave. But when the time comes and you want a fightin' man, just let me at him! When you want to run some of these here crooks outer the ...

— Hidden Gold • Wilder Anthony

... slain the beri-beri with a ball from my knobkerry; I have climbed the Pole and leapt across the Line; I've seen seals in Abyssinia and volcanoes in Virginia, And I've dived into the shark-infested Rhine. ...

— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 156, Jan. 15, 1919 • Various

... everywhere in evidence, dominating mankind at large. Public sentiment was never more keen and never nearer right than to-day. There is general confusion, however, as to methods and ways and means. The cunning shark and the selfish brute resort to concealment, cunning and subterfuge, to deceive the people and often succeed for a time, only to meet with condemnation and execration later. Injustice is often in evidence, but it is ...

— The New Avatar and The Destiny of the Soul - The Findings of Natural Science Reduced to Practical Studies - in Psychology • Jirah D. Buck

... hath a bunchy back * From mischievous eld whom perforce Love flies: And the crone of ninety hath palsied head * And lies wakeful o' nights and in watchful guise; And with ten years added would Heaven she bide * Shrouded in sea with a shark for guide!" ...

— Supplemental Nights, Volume 5 • Richard F. Burton

... several large bushy-whiskered fellows lounging about the deck, with their hair gathered into dirty net-bags, like the fishermen of Barcelona; many had red silk sashes round their waists, through which were stuck their long knives, in shark-skin sheaths. Their numbers were not so great as to excite suspicion: but a certain daring, reckless manner, would at once have distinguished them, independently of anything else, from the quiet, hard-worked, ...

— Great Pirate Stories • Various

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