starfish

Pluralstarfishes, starfish

Formsstarfishes, starfishing, starfished

1. 1
   nouncountable

   Any of various marine echinoderms, not actually fish, that usually have five arms and often feed on shellfish or corals by pushing their stomach outward.

   The starfish slowly pried open the mussel and pushed its stomach inside the shell.

   Divers counted dozens of starfish scattered across the reef.

   Similarasteroid

   Note

   The compound star + fish gets the shape right and the animal wrong, which is why careful descriptions always add that these creatures are not fish. Sea star avoids the misnomer, and asteroid is the zoologist's term, matching the class name Asteroidea. Both plurals are in use: starfish, unchanged like fish, and starfishes.

2. 2
   verbintransitive

   To take on a splayed-out shape, with arms and legs spread wide like a starfish.

   She starfished on the grass to soak up the afternoon sun.

   Toddlers often starfish in their cribs, arms and legs flung wide.

   Similarsprawl

   Note

   The verb reaches beyond human bodies. Kit Reed's Magic Time (1981) has a woman starfishing in a blaze of light. Becky Manawatu's Auē (2020) goes further and lets a freckle on an eye starfish out, with the particle adding a sense of spreading from a center. Nothing receives the action here. When something is spread by an outside force, the transitive use takes over.

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To arrange something into a splayed-out shape, with the parts spread wide like a starfish.

   The dancer starfished her limbs at the climax of the routine.

   Coaches tell divers to starfish their bodies briefly before tucking.

   Similarsplay, spread, stretch

   Oppositetuck

   Note

   Here the splaying is done to something, and the doer need not own the limbs. In Polly Williams's It Happened One Summer (2011), a sea current pulls a swimmer's fingers apart, starfishing her hands. The natural objects are body parts such as hands, limbs or a whole body. The construction suits moments when force, rather than choice, spreads them wide.

4. 4
   verbintransitive

   To float on the surface of water with the arms and legs splayed out wide, like a starfish.

   She starfished in the lake, eyes closed against the bright sun.

   Beginners learn to starfish before they try to swim.

   Similarfloat

5. 5
   nounslangvulgarcountable

   A vulgar slang word for the anus, used in crude or jokey speech rather than neutral talk.

   The long horse ride left his starfish aching for days.

   She winced as the cold lake water hit her starfish.

   Similaranus

   Note

   A crude image that turns on the puckered, radiating shape. Its natural home is explicit writing: it turns up especially in translations of Japanese pornography and in erotica such as Sophie Palmer's Hot Wife (2021). Chocolate starfish is the fuller, even cruder variant. It is vulgar throughout and has no place in clinical or polite use.

6. 6
   nounslangcountable

   A woman (or, less often, a gay man) who takes part in sexual intercourse reluctantly, lying on the back with the limbs spread out.

   She worried that her boyfriend thought she was a starfish in bed.

   The novel's narrator dismissively branded his ex a starfish.

   Note

   A mocking judgment more than a description. It borrows the sea creature's flat, spread-armed stillness and applies it to a partner who seems to do nothing. Cold fish and dead fish make a similar complaint. It is derogatory slang, so keep it out of any setting where a neutral or respectful word is wanted.

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