# oyster
## English
### Alternative forms

* erster (New York City, New Orleans)
* oister (obsolete)
* oystre (obsolete)

### Etymology

From Middle English oystre, from Old English ostre, reinforced or superseded by Anglo-Norman oistre, which is from Old French oistre, uistre (compare modern French huître); both lines (Old English and Old French) from Latin ostrea, from Ancient Greek ὄστρεον (óstreon). Doublet of ostro (“a purple dye”).

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈɔɪstə/
* (General American) IPA: /ˈɔɪstəɹ/
* Audio (General American):(file)
* (Southern US, regional) IPA: /ˈɔɪst͡ʃəɹ/
* Rhymes: -ɔɪstə(ɹ)
* Hyphenation: oy‧ster

### Noun

oyster (plural oysters)
* 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.
** c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], page 45, lines 2–5:Piſt. Why then the world's mine Oyſter, which I, with ſword will open.
** 1731 (date written), Simon Wagstaff [pseudonym; Jonathan Swift], “Dialogue II”, in A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation, […], London: […] B[enjamin] Motte […], published 1738, →OCLC, page 120:He was a bold man that first ate an oyster.
* 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.
** 1971, United States Bureau of Naval Personnel, “Food preparation”, in Steward 3 & 2, U.S. Government Printing Office, page 148:Cut remaining skin on back. Remove the oyster (choice dark meat in spoon-shaped bone on back) with the leg.
* A pale beige color tinted with grey or pink, like that of an oyster.
    oyster:
* (colloquial, by analogy) A person who keeps secrets.
** 1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave I. Marley’s Ghost.”, in A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 3:Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.
* (figurative) Something at one's disposal.
** 1959, Vance Packard, The Status Seekers, Pocket Books, published 1971, →ISBN, page 116: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.
* (UK, slang) A shoplifter.
* (UK, slang) Ellipsis of Oyster card.

#### Derived terms

* American oyster (Crassostrea virginica)
* Atlantic oyster (Crassostrea virginica)
* Belon oyster (Ostrea edulis)
* black-bordered oyster (Saxostrea gradiva)
* black-lip pearl oyster (Pinctada margaritifera)
* bluff oyster (Ostrea chilensis)
* box oyster
* bunch oyster (Ostrea frons)
* Ceylon pearl oyster (Pinctada vulgaris)
* Chilean oyster (Ostrea chilensis)
* Chincoteague oyster (Crassostrea virginica)
* cockscomb oyster (Pycnodonta hyotis, Ostrea cristi-galli)
* Colchester native oyster (Ostrea edulis)
* common European oyster (Ostrea edulis)
* coon oyster (Ostrea frons)
* corn oyster
* dredge oyster (Ostrea chilensis)
* eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica)
* edible oyster (Ostrea edulis)
* European flat oyster (Ostrea edulis)
* feather oyster (Pteriidae)
* fresh-water oyster (Etheria spp.)
* Glasgow oyster
* gold-lip oyster (Pinctida maxima)
* green oyster (Ulva lactuca)
* hammer oyster (Malleus spp. etc.)
* Hong Kong oyster (Magallana hongkongensis)
* hooded oyster (Saccostrea cucullata)
* Japanese oyster (Magallana gigas)
* king oyster mushroom (Pleurotus eryngii)
* mangrove oyster (Ostrea frons)
* Miyagi oyster (Magallana gigas)
* mountain oyster
* mud oyster (Ostrea edulis)
* Olympia oyster (Ostrea lurida)
* oyster ball
* oysterbank
* oyster bar
* Oyster Bay
* oyster bed
* oyster blade
* oyster blade steak
* oyster borer (Haustrum scobina)
* oyster cake
* Oyster card
* oystercatcher (Haematopus spp.)
* oyster cellar
* oyster crab (Zaops ostreus)
* oyster cracker
* oyster drill (Ocenebrinae gen. and spp.)
* oyster farm
* oysterfish (Tautoga onitis)
* oyster fruit
* oyster grass
* oyster house
* oysterish
* oyster knife
* oyster leech (Stylochus frontalis)
* oysterless
* oysterlike
* oysterling
* oysterman
* oyster mushroom (Pleurotus)
* oyster nut (Telfairia pedata)
* oyster omelette
* oyster parlor
* oyster pink
* oyster piracy
* oyster pirate
* oyster plant (Tragopogon porrifolius)
* oyster Rockefeller
* oyster saloon
* oyster sauce
* oystershell bark louse (Lepidosaphes ulmi)
* oystershell scale (Lepidosaphes ulmi)
* oyster shooter
* oyster-shucking knife
* oysters Kilpatrick
* oysters rockefeller
* oyster-tecture
* oyster toadfish (Batrachoididae)
* oyster tree (Rhizophora)
* oyster white
* oyster wife
* oysterwoman
* oystery
* Pacific oyster (Magallana gigas)
* pearl oyster (Pteriidae gen. and spp., Pinctada margaritifera)
* pilgrim oyster (Pectinidae etc.)
* Portuguese oyster (Crassostrea angulata)
* prairie oyster
* raccoon oyster
* racoon oyster (Ostrea frons)
* rock oyster (Saccostrea spp.)
* Rocky Mountain oyster
* saddle oyster (Placuna sella, Anomia)
* scalloped oyster
* seed oyster
* Spanish oyster (Pinnidae)
* spiny oyster (Spondylus)
* Sydney rock oyster (Saccostrea glomerata, Anomia spp.)
* the world is one's oyster
* the world is someone's oyster
* thorny oyster (Spondylus)
* tree oyster (Pleurotus spp.)
* true oyster (Ostreidae gen. and spp.)
* vegetable oyster (Tragopogon porrifolius)
* Viennese oyster
* Virginia oyster (Crassostrea virginica)
* Wellfleet oyster (Crassostrea virginica)
* windowpane oyster (Placuna placenta)
* woods oyster (Pleurotus ostreatus)

#### Related terms

* ostraceous
* ostreiculture
* ostreophage
* ostreophagous
* ostriferous

#### Translations
### Adjective

oyster (comparative more oyster, superlative most oyster)
* Of a pale beige colour tinted with grey or pink, like that of an oyster.

### Verb

oyster (third-person singular simple present oysters, present participle oystering, simple past and past participle oystered)
* (intransitive) To fish for oysters.
** 1986, Carolyn Ellis, Fisher Folk: Two Communities on Chesapeake Bay, University Press of Kentucky, →ISBN, page 77: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).

### See also

* astragalus
* bluepoint
* carpetbag steak
* clam
* lungwort
* mussel
* Ostreidae
* salsify
* spat
* Appendix:Colors

### References

* “oyster”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
* oyster on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

### Anagrams

* Storey, Troyes, oystre, storey, toyers, tyroes