MUSSEL • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Mussel

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/mˈəsəl/ Listen

noun

Mussel n.

(Zool.) Any one of many species of marine bivalve shells of the genus Mytilus, and related genera, of the family Mytidae. The common mussel (Mytilus edulis), and the larger, or horse, mussel (Modiola modiolus), inhabiting the shores both of Europe and America, are edible. The former is extensively used as food in Europe.

(Zool.) Any one of numerous species of Unio, and related fresh-water genera; called also river mussel. See Naiad, and Unio.

Mussel digger (Zool.), the grayback whale. See Gray whale, under Gray.

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Etymology of 'Mussel'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Mussel" Quotes from Famous Books

... knife; the arm and leg bones of apes as arrow points; the tail spike of a skate for the same; the two front claws of the armadillo to dig the ground (a process which the animal taught them by the same use of his claws); the shell of a river mussel as a scraper to finish wooden tools. "These people were hunters without dogs, fishers without hooks, and tillers without plow or spade. They show how much development life was capable of in the time before metals."[170] ...

— Folkways - A Study of the Sociological Importance of Usages, Manners, Customs, Mores, and Morals • William Graham Sumner

... a species of mussel. If made of the hard mussel he lives long—it is difficult for him to die. But if he happens to be made of the poisonous mussel, he is fragile, easily upset, and ...

— Samoa, A Hundred Years Ago And Long Before • George Turner

... their guns, my lort, when I'll have cot a hold o' the craturs themsels in my hants?" and he held out his enormous brown paws as if to certify their power. "I'll crush the podies like a mussel shells." ...

— Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, XXII • various

... which may be kept for an indefinite period. When required for use the meal is mixed with water, made into a thin cake or damper, and baked in the ashes. Prepared in this way the cake resembles a coarse ship's biscuit. In other parts, the beans are scraped by means of mussel-shells into a vermicelli-like substance, prior to soaking in water. Our blacks have a more ingenious method of preparation, and employ a specially formed culinary implement, which is used for no other purpose. They take the commonest of the land shells—"kurra-dju" (XANTHOMELON PACHYSTYLA)—and ...

— The Confessions of a Beachcomber • E J Banfield

... A little pile of mussel, winkle, and shore-crab shells, and the backbone of what had been a stranded fish, close to the mouth of the hole, showed the rat's account-book to date; but there was a line to be drawn even in this trade. ...

— The Way of the Wild • F. St. Mars

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