Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A viviparous fish, Zoarces viviparus, of an elongated eel-like form, often confounded with the eel.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) The eelpout.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • An eel-mother and her son were lying at the bottom of the sea, close to the landing-stage, watching a young fisherman getting ready his line.

    In Midsummer Days, and Other Tales August Strindberg 1880

  • When the eel-mother and all the rest of them returned, they found that it had undergone a change.

    In Midsummer Days, and Other Tales August Strindberg 1880

  • First it sounded as if sixty piles of wood were all being sawn at the same time; then a cleft opened in the water which went down to the bottom of the sea, and there, wedged between three stones, stood a black box, which sang and played and tinkled and jingled, close to the eel-mother and her son, who hastily disappeared in the lowest depths of the ocean.

    In Midsummer Days, and Other Tales August Strindberg 1880

  • The eel-mother was the first to put in an appearance.

    In Midsummer Days, and Other Tales August Strindberg 1880

  • But they went too far; and of eight daughters only three came back to the eel-mother, and these wept and said, 'We only went a little way before the door, and the ugly eel spearer came directly, and stabbed five of our party to death.'

    What the Moon Saw: and Other Tales Alfred Walter Bayes 1840

  • 'They will come again,' still persisted the eel-mother.

    The Sand-Hills of Jutland 1840

  • On leaving the sand-hills, they passed over heaths and boggy lands, until they came to the green meadows where Skjærumaa winds its way -- the river with the numerous eels, where the eel-mother with her daughters lived, those whom the cruel man speared and cut in pieces, though there were men who had scarcely treated their fellow-men better.

    The Sand-Hills of Jutland 1840

  • He also wished to go "a little way up the stream" -- that is to say, to go away in a ship to see the world -- and his mother said as the eel-mother had done.

    The Sand-Hills of Jutland 1840

  • "Just look at him!" said the eel-mother, "there you have an example of the malice and cunning of the world ....

    In Midsummer Days, and Other Tales August Strindberg 1880

  • "Out in the rivulet dwelt eels, and the eel-mother said to her daughters, when they begged to be allowed to go a little way alone up the stream.

    The Sand-Hills of Jutland 1840

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