shrimping

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of shrimp.

   The crew was shrimping off the coast when the storm rolled in.

   Shrimping at dawn gives the best chance of a full catch.

   Note

   Two verbs share this spelling. One means to fish for shrimp, and the other means to contract or shrink. The fishing verb takes no object: crews go shrimping or were shrimping off the coast, never shrimping the bay. As a noun for the activity, the gerund shades into the trade itself. The two are told apart by whether the word still behaves like a verb.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The catching of shrimp, whether as a pastime or as a business.

   Shrimping along the Gulf coast supports thousands of small boats.

   Commercial shrimping has declined since cheaper imports flooded the market.

3. 3
   nounslanguncountable

   The sexual practice of sucking on a partner's toes.

   He brought up shrimping as one of the things he was curious to try.

   For some couples, shrimping is just a playful part of intimacy.

   Note

   Bedroom slang that shares its spelling with an ordinary trade word, so context does all the work. It is casual, jocular slang rather than clinical vocabulary. It suits frank talk between adults and is out of place in formal writing. Where the talk is of boats and nets, listeners hear the fishing trade, so a speaker elsewhere should be sure which meaning will land.

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