shrimps

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of shrimp. In American English shrimp is the usual plural; shrimps is less common.

   Cleaner shrimps pick tiny parasites off the fish that visit the reef.

   The study compared freshwater shrimps from three different rivers.

   Note

   The regular -s plural has a rival: the unmarked plural shrimp, common in fishery and cooking. Shrimps tends to picture individual creatures, while bare shrimp suits the catch or the dish as a mass, so a bowl of shrimp and three plump shrimps both sound natural. Because the slang sense for a small, puny person also counts, shrimps can mean people as well as crustaceans. The same spelling serves the verb of fishing for them.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of shrimp.

   The old fisherman shrimps off the estuary mouth at first light.

   Her family shrimps the tidal flats much as their grandparents did.

   Note

   A working verb in the present tense, used of a person who goes out after shrimp. It usually stands without an object: he shrimps every morning in season. The same form also belongs to a quite different verb meaning to contract or shrink. If the subject is cloth or flesh rather than a fisherman, the sentence is about shrinking, not fishing.

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