porcupinefish
any of several fishes of the family Diodontidae, especially Diodon hystrix, of tropical seas, capable of inflating the body with water or air until it resembles a globe, with erection of the long spines covering the skin.
Origin of porcupinefish
1Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use porcupinefish in a sentence
We have received many curious specimens: sea-horse, porcupine-fish, key-hole shells, etc.
St. Nicholas v. 13 No. 9 July 1886 | VariousThey leave him alone; and the Porcupine-fish goes back to his usual shape, the spines lying flat until wanted again.
Within the Deep | R. Cadwallader SmithSome have bony coats of mail and sometimes the coat of mail is covered with thorns, as in the porcupine-fish.
Elementary Zoology, Second Edition | Vernon L. Kellogg
British Dictionary definitions for porcupine fish
any of various plectognath fishes of the genus Diodon and related genera, of temperate and tropical seas, having a body that is covered with sharp spines and can be inflated into a globe: family Diodontidae: Also called: globefish
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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