Dictionary

chiselmouth en · NOUN

Etymology

From chisel + mouth. Named for the sharp plate on its lower jaw, which the fish uses to scrape algae from rocks.

Meanings

1. A fish of species Gila alutacea (formerly Acrocheilus alutaceus) native to the Pacific Northwest of North America.
   • The large black chub (Acrocheilus alutaceus), of the Pacific Coast rivers, is known locally as chiselmouth, squaremouth and hardmouth. 1903, Frederick Converse Beach, editor, The Encyclopedia Americana, volume 4, page 650:
   • In British Columbia, hybrids between the chiselmouth and the northern pikeminnow are common in Missezula Lake and Wolfe Creek (both near Princeton). 2007 September 28, J.D. McPhail, The Freshwater Fishes of British Columbia, University of Alberta, →ISBN, page 57:

Forms

Hypernyms

western chub · fish · chub · minnow

Synonyms

hard-mouth chub · squaremouth