▪ I. shrimp, n.
(ʃrɪmp)
Forms: 4–5 schrympe, 4–6 schrimpe, shrympe, 4–7 shrimpe, 5 schrymp, scrymppe, srympe, shyrympe, 6 schriemp, 6– shrimp.
[Prob. cogn. w. MHG. (MG.) schrimpen str. vb., to shrink up: see scrimp a. and v.; cf. also prec.
Sense 2 is prob. directly from the etymological sense ‘shrunken creature’, but is now felt as transf. from 1.]
1. a. Any of the slender, long-tailed, long-legged (chiefly marine) crustaceans of the genus Crangon and allied genera, closely related to the prawns; esp. C. vulgaris, the common shrimp, which inhabits the sand on the coasts of Great Britain and is a common article of food.
Also, in a wider sense, applied to various similar crustaceans, as the families Mysidæ and Gammaridæ; see brine, fairy, opossum shrimp, etc.
| 1327 Wardrobe Acc. 20 Edw. II, 31/18 Shrimpis, 3d. c 1430 Two Cookery-bks. 42 Take þe Luce, an þe Perche, & þe Schrympe, & seþe hem. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 449/1 Schrymp, fysche, stingus. c 1450 Brut 447 Grete Scrymppys. c 1460 J. Russell Bk. Nurture 646 in Babees Bk., Shrympes welle pyked þe scales awey ye cast. 1553 Belon De Aquatilibus 273 Anglorum..pisces ex Tamesi & aliis Britanniæ fluminibus..Roches, Daces, Tenche, Ruff, Schriemp, Prans. 1622 Drayton Poly-olb. xxv. 190 The Periwincle, Prawne, the Cockle, and the Shrimpe, For wanton womens tasts, or for weake stomacks bought. 1674 Flatman Belly God 97 An ore-charg'd Stomack roasted shrimps will ease. 1770 P. Pittman Europ. Settlem. 5 Shrimps are found in the Mississippi as far as Natches. 1802 Bingley Zool. (1813) III. 389 The Shrimp is much smaller than the Prawn, and is by no means so much esteemed as food. 1848 Dickens Dombey vi, She partook of shrimps and porter. 1890 Hardwicke's Sci. Gossip XXVI. 280/1 The phantom shrimp (Caprella linearis) of S. Australia. |
| collect. sing. 1867 A. J. Wilson Vashti viii, The boy..whose sublimest idea of heaven consists in the hope that its blessed sea of glass is brimming with golden shrimp. |
† b. Applied to a scaly monster.
Obs.| ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 767 His scoulders ware schalyde alle in clene syluere, Schreede ouer alle the schrympe with schrinkande poyntez. |
c. A shrimp or prawn used as a bait in angling.
| 1856 ‘Stonehenge’ Man. Brit. Rural Sports 236/2 Shrimps are used for angling in docks and canals, and are good baits for perch, if used alive. 1910 Encycl. Brit. II. 29/1 Odd attractions such as boiled shrimps, caddis-grubs, small frogs, maggots, wasp-grubs, &c. are sometimes successful. 1924 Blackw. Mag. Apr. 489/1, I would not trust the most experienced salmon with Michael Lydon and a Galway ‘shrimp’. 1931 Hardy's Anglers' Guide 31 The shrimp will wake the lazy dozer, and he'll take it or your fly with a rush. Ibid. 180 Prawn and Shrimp Tackles. 1962 L. L. Bean Catal. 52 Bean's shrimp fly is an excellent imitation of the natural food for trout. |
d. A colour resembling that of a cooked shrimp, a bright shade of pink.
| 1895 Montgomery Ward Catal. Spring & Summer 12/1 Colored Surah silks..in the following colors: green..shrimp, wine. 1927 T. Woodhouse Artificial Silk 81 The particulars of the colours and patterns are as under—No. 1. A shrimp ordinary crochet pattern. 1975 New Yorker 26 May 81 (Advt.), This plain white steerhide belt reverses to cool summer shades including seafoam green, shrimp, bone. |
2. a. A diminutive or puny person (
rarely thing). Chiefly
contemptuous.
| c 1386 Chaucer Monk's Prol. 67 We borel men been shrympes. 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 384 b, He would have been a notorious Goliath over these little moathes, and simple shrimpes. 1582 Stanyhurst æneis iii. 61 On a suddeyn we behold a windbeaten hard shrimp, With lanck wan visadge. 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. v. ii. 594 When he [sc. Hercules] was a babe, a childe, a shrimpe, Thus did he strangle Serpents. 1602 Narcissus (1893) 167 Thou art my mother, I thy sonne, thy shrimpe. 1615 Exchange Ware Second Hand (ed. 2) C 1 b, Alas poore shrimpe, thou art nothing in my hands. 1768 Tucker Lt. Nat. II. 142, I wondered how such a shrimp as you could dragg about such a great carcass as mine. 1840 Barham Ingol. Leg. Ser. ii. Aunt Fanny, And all for a ‘Shrimp’ not as high as my hat—A little contemptible ‘Shaver’ like that!! 1863 Hawthorne Our Old Home, Near Oxford II. 35 Poor little shrimp that he was [sc. Pope]. 1905 E. Glyn Viciss. Evangeline 85 He did look such a teeny shrimp climbing after me! |
| fig. 1634 S. R[owley] Noble Soldier iii. ii, The small ones [sc. poets] are but shrimpes of Poesie. |
b. a shrimp of a —: a diminutive, a very minute or tiny —.
| a 1774 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 574 By continual ruminating upon this shrimp of a possibility. 1834 Marryat Peter Simple xxiv, If it bears me, it will not condescend to bend at your shrimp of a carcass. 1884 ‘H. Collingwood’ Under Meteor Flag 258 A little shrimp of a fellow named Fisher. |
3. attrib. and
Comb.| 1611 Cotgr., Escruoëlle, a little Shrimp-resembling worme. 1736 Bailey Dict. Domest., A Shrimp Pye. 1747 H. Glasse Cookery 61 To make Shrimp Sauce. 1758 Johnson Idler No. 33 ¶7 The shrimp-sauce not so good as Mr. H...and I used to eat. 1762–71 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) IV. 191 The Shrimp-girl, a head, by Bartolozzi. 1791 Huddesford Salmag. 111 Shrimpscalders and bugkillers, taylors and tylers. 1828 Davy Salmonia 62 Small shrimp-like aurelia. 1855 Dickens Dorrit i. xiii, A butter⁓boat of shrimp sauce. 1859 A. J. Munby Diary 18 July in D. Hudson Munby (1972) 39 She stood there leaning on her shrimp net (for she had been fishing). 1882 Cassell's Fam. Mag. 236/1 Shrimp-pink with white is one of the happiest and latest combinations. 1883 [see shrimping]. 1888 Pall Mall Gaz. 20 Sept. 11/2 She was dressed in a shrimp pink. 1888 Goode Amer. Fishes 192 They are sometimes taken by hook and line, with shrimp-bait. 1889 ‘Mark Twain’ Connecticut Yankee ii. 34 An airy slim boy in shrimp-colored tights. 1918 Shrimp paste [see Gentleman's Relish s.v. gentleman 7 c]. 1923 D. H. Lawrence Kangaroo vii. 137 The different shells, their sea-colours of pink and brown and rainbow and..shrimp-red. 1932 A. Huxley Brave New World iii. 38 Two shrimp-brown children emerged from a neighbouring shrubbery. 1973 J. Rossiter Manipulators viii. 90 A shrimp-pink shirt. 1976 Western Living (Vancouver, B.C.) June 50/2 A fishing village, processing salt fish, making shrimp paste, and doing a bit of duck-farming. |
b. shrimp-boat, a boat engaged in fishing for shrimps;
shrimp cocktail [
cocktail n. 4], a dish of boiled shrimps served cold in a sauce;
shrimp cracker, a light, crisp cracker flavoured with shrimp and served as an accompaniment to Oriental food;
shrimp-fixer (see
quot. 1850);
shrimp gumbo U.S., a shrimp soup thickened with okra pods;
shrimp-hearted a., pusillanimous;
shrimp-louse (see
quot. 1850);
shrimp plant, an evergreen shrub,
Justicia brandegeana (formerly
Beloperone guttata), belonging to the family Acanthaceæ, native to Mexico, and bearing small white flowers hidden in clusters of pinkish-brown bracts.
| 1872 B. Jerrold London p. viii, Smacks, barges shrimp-boats. 1979 Guardian 22 Oct. 26/7 The size of mesh permitted on shrimp boats in British waters. |
| 1937 America's Cook Bk. 180 Lobster or shrimp cocktail... Chill thoroughly and serve in cocktail glasses. 1977 J. Wainwright Nest of Rats i. vi. 38 It was a nice meal. Shrimp cocktails, followed by a good mixed grill. |
| 1969 Listener 12 June 814/1 The village chief himself asked us to a dinner of dried deer and shrimp crackers, chicken and lettuce. 1975 J. van de Wetering Outsider in Amsterdam (1976) vi. 79 He..broke a piece of shrimp-crackers and grabbed the noodles. 1850 A. White List Specim. Crustacea Brit. Mus. 82 Bopyrus squillarum. Shrimp-fixer. |
| [1805 Shrimp gumbo: see gumbo 1 b.] 1885 L. Hearn La Couisine Creole 21 (heading) Maigre shrimp gombo for Lent. 1889 J. Whitehead Steward's Handbk. iv. 337/2 Shrimp-gumbo..not boiled after gumbo is in. 1938 C. H. Matschat Suwanee River 255 The supper was fresh shrimp gumbo, hot and highly spiced. |
| 1796 M. Robinson Angelina II. 187 You shrimp-hearted lubber. |
| 1850 A. White List Specim. Crustacea Brit. Mus. 81 Ione thoracicus. Mud shrimp-louse. |
| 1941 L. H. & E. Z. Bailey Hortus Second 101 [Beloperone] guttàta. Shrimp-plant. 1946 M. Free All about House Plants xvii. 153 The Shrimp Plant..is a comparatively new introduction to the house-plant scene. 1956 X. Field Housewife Bk. House Plants iii. 74 The Shrimp Plant has always been a favourite of mine. I delight in its prawn-like flowers. 1975 J. van de Wetering Tumbleweed (1976) ii. 18 There were plants on all window-sills..the shrimp plant with a pink growth at the end of each stalk. |
▪ II. shrimp, v. (
ʃrɪmp)
[f. the n.] a. intr. To fish for shrimps.
b. trans. To fish (a pool, etc.) with shrimp as a bait.
| 1844 M. Hole Diary 26 Aug. in B. Massingham Turn on Fountains (1974) ii. 39 Making the most of our last day at old Blackpool... Loafed. Shrimped. 1926 R. Macaulay Crewe Train ii. v. 119 Torquay wasn't bad. One could shrimp and prawn and fish. 1931 Hardy's Anglers' Guide 31 And remember too that you may shrimp a pool in this manner and revert to fly without any fear of your pool being disturbed. 1938 Mississippi (U.S. Works Progress Admin.) 169 In many instances, however, boats are oystering at one season and shrimping at another. |