oyster

noun

1. 1

   Any of certain marine bivalve mollusks, especially those of the family Ostreidae (the true oysters), usually found adhering to rocks or other fixed objects in shallow water along the seacoasts, or in brackish water in the mouth of rivers.

   Piſt. Why then the world's mine Oyſter, which I, with ſword will open.

   He was a bold man that first ate an oyster.

2. 2

   The delicate oyster-shaped morsel of dark meat contained in a small cavity of the bone on each side of the lower part of the back of a fowl.

   Cut remaining skin on back. Remove the oyster (choice dark meat in spoon-shaped bone on back) with the leg.

3. 3

   A pale beige color tinted with grey or pink, like that of an oyster.

4. 4

   A person who keeps secrets.

   Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.

   I will not be a human oyster. No, I will lay my cards on the table, which is assuredly a thing that oysters do not do.

5. 5

   figurativeSomething at one's disposal.

   He asked a major Chicago retailer with a large store in the heart of the city about the socioeconomic character of his customers. The man replied proudly that the entire range of economic classes was his oyster.

6. 6

   slangA shoplifter.

7. 7

   Variant of Oyster cardslangEllipsis of Oyster card.

adjective

1. 1

   Of a pale beige colour tinted with grey or pink, like that of an oyster.

verb

1. 1

   To fish for oysters.

   Most Fishneck watermen oystered in winter, using the same small skiffs from which they potted crabs in summer. Sometimes two men oystered from the same boat or took along a son or younger brother to cull oysters (separate those of legal size from undersized ones and shell).

Forms

plural

oysters

comparative

more oyster

superlative

most oyster

past tense

oystered

past participle

oystered

present participle

oystering

third person singular

oysters