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noun

Swordfish n.

(Zool.)

(a)

A very large oceanic fish (Xiphias gladius), the only representative of the family Xiphiidae. It is highly valued as a food fish. The bones of the upper jaw are consolidated, and form a long, rigid, swordlike beak; the dorsal fin is high and without distinct spines; the ventral fins are absent. The adult is destitute of teeth. It becomes sixteen feet or more long.

(b)

The gar pike.

(c)

The cutlass fish.

(Astron.) A southern constellation. See Dorado, 1.

Swordfish sucker (Zool.), a remora (Remora brachyptera) which attaches itself to the swordfish.

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Etymology of 'Swordfish'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Swordfish" Quotes from Famous Books

... jerk him; and went west half a mile on a small creek with running water and where the feed was better and more green than on the river. The bullock was got to camp about evening and slaughtered; plenty of guardfish, swordfish, and sharks under the falls, which are about fifty to sixty feet high with no current. Deep water above and below, and water oozing through the fissures of the rock which appears a sort of burnt limestone and indifferent agate. Found an eatable fruit on a handsome ...

— McKinlay's Journal of Exploration in the Interior of Australia • John McKinlay

... was one of those men who move about this world unprotected and without having their wits about them. He was not a sawfish, or a swordfish. So one day when he was walking up Railway Avenue—it was just the day after he had told someone that he had five hundred dollars of scrapings salted down, which was earning three per cent, at the local bank—a very pretentious gentleman, spotlessly attired, ...

— Skookum Chuck Fables - Bits of History, Through the Microscope • Skookum Chuck (pseud for R.D. Cumming)

... which we had up to now skirted and touched at was not only barren and inhabited by savages, but also the sea in these parts seemed to yield nothing but sharks, swordfish, and the like unnatural monsters, while the birds also were as wild and shy as the men. What pleasure the wretched inhabitants of this country can find in their lives it is hard ...

— Adventures in Southern Seas - A Tale of the Sixteenth Century • George Forbes

Words linked to "Swordfish" : Xiphias, scombroid fish, scombroid, Xiphias gladius