sardine

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun Any of various edible fishes of the family Clupeidae that are frequently canned, especially small herrings of western Atlantic waters and Sardina pilchardus of European waters.
• noun Any of various other small, silvery, edible freshwater or marine fishes.
• transitive verb To pack tightly; cram.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun One of several different small clupeoid fish suitable for canning in oil.
• noun The Gulf menhaden, Brevoortia patronus.
• noun The common menhaden, Brevoortia tyrannus, when prepared and boxed as sardines. See shadine.
• noun An anchovy, Stolephorus browni.
• noun A characinoid fish of the subfamily Tetragonopterinæ, living in the fresh waters of the island of Trinidad. Several species are known by the name.
• noun An insignificant or contemptible person; a petty character. Compare small fry, under fry.
• noun Same as sard.
• noun A fresh-water fish, Conosirus erebi, of the herring tribe, which occurs in rivers of western and northwestern Australia and Queensland: so called in the Brisbane river region. It is the bony-bream of the New South Wales rivers and the Perth herring of Western Australia.

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

• noun See sardius.
• noun (Zoöl.) Any one of several small species of herring which are commonly preserved in olive oil for food, especially the pilchard, or European sardine (Clupea pilchardus). The California sardine (Clupea sagax) is similar. The American sardines of the Atlantic coast are mostly the young of the common herring and of the menhaden.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun Any one of several small species of herring which are commonly preserved in olive oil or in tins for food, especially the pilchard, or European sardine (Clupea pichardus). The California sardine (Clupea sagax) is similar. The American sardines of the Atlantic coast are mostly the young of the common herring and of the menhaden.
• noun obsolete carnelian

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a deep orange-red variety of chalcedony
• noun any of various small edible herring or related food fishes frequently canned
• noun small fishes found in great schools along coasts of Europe; smaller and rounder than herring
• noun small fatty fish usually canned