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Added 9 October 2026

shark

/ʃɑːk/ noun

In Latin: squalus Wiktionary

noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about shark at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

Any predatory fish of the superorder Selachimorpha, with a cartilaginous skeleton and 5 to 7 gill slits on each side of its head.
Meat of this animal, consumed as food.
Any fish of the class Chondrichthyes, especially an extinct shark-like holocephalian.

verb

To fish for sharks.
Of a university student who is not a fresher (first-year undergraduate), and especially towards the start of the academic year: To engage in sexual activity with a fresher. To cruise for casual sex with a fresher at a bar or club.
To engage in sexual activity with a fresher.

noun

Someone who exploits others, for example by trickery, lies, usury, extortion.
A sleazy and amoral lawyer.
An ambulance chaser.

verb

To steal or obtain through fraud.
To play the petty thief; to practice fraud or trickery; to swindle.
To live by shifts and stratagems.

Origin

From Middle English shark (used by Thomas Beckington in 1442 to refer to a kind of fish), of uncertain origin. Most likely from a semantic extension of the German-derived shark (“scoundrel”), see below. The fish was originally called a dogfish or haye in English and Middle English. Its name in Old English is unknown, although some uses of the word hranfisċ that do not appear to carry the sense of "whale" may have been referencing it. alternative theories Some older dictionaries derived the word from Latin c(h)archarias, c(h)acharus (from Ancient Greek), but admit that "the requisite [Old French] forms intermediate between E. shark and L.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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