Mermaid

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Mermaid \Mer"maid\, n. [AS. mere lake, sea. See {Mere} lake, and
     {maid}.]
     A fabled marine creature, typically represented as having the
     upper part like that of a woman, and the lower like a fish; a
     sea nymph, sea woman, or woman fish.
     [1913 Webster]


  
     Note: Chaucer uses this word as equivalent to the siren of
           the ancients.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     {Mermaid fish} (Zool.) the angel fish ({Squatina}).
  
     {Mermaid's glove} (Zool.), a British branched sponge somewhat
        resembling a glove.
  
     {Mermaid's head} (Zool.), a European spatangoid sea urchin
        ({Echinocardium cordatum}) having some resemblance to a
        skull.
  
     {Mermaid weed} (Bot.), an aquatic herb with dentate or
        pectinate leaves ({Proserpinaca palustris} and
        {Proserpinaca pectinacea}).
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  mermaid
       n : half woman and half fish; lives in the sea

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  39 Moby Thesaurus words for "mermaid":
     Davy, Davy Jones, Dylan, Neptune, Nereid, Nereus, Oceanid, Oceanus,
     Poseidon, Thetis, Triton, Varuna, bather, bathing beauty,
     bathing girl, diver, fresh-water nymph, frogman, kelpie, limniad,
     man fish, merman, naiad, natator, nix, nixie, ocean nymph,
     sea devil, sea god, sea nymph, sea-maid, sea-maiden, seaman, siren,
     swimmer, undine, water god, water spirit, water sprite