Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Shad

Shad (shăd), n. sing. & pl. [AS. sceadda a kind of fish, akin to Prov. G. schade; cf. Ir. & Gael. sgadan a herring, W. ysgadan herrings; all perhaps akin to E. skate a fish.] (Zoöl.) Any one of several species of food fishes of the Herring family. The American species (Clupea sapidissima), which is abundant on the Atlantic coast and ascends the larger rivers in spring to spawn, is an important market fish. The European allice shad, or alose (C. alosa), and the twaite shad. (C. finta), are less important species. [Written also chad.]

☞ The name is loosely applied, also, to several other fishes, as the gizzard shad (see under Gizzard), called also mud shad, white-eyed shad, and winter shad.

Hardboaded, or Yellow-tailed, shad, the menhaden. — Hickory, or Tailor, shad, the mattowacca. — Long-boned shad, one of several species of important food fishes of the Bermudas and the West Indies, of the genus Gerres. — Shad bush (Bot.), a name given to the North American shrubs or small trees of the rosaceous genus Amelanchier (A. Canadensis, and A. alnifolia) Their white racemose blossoms open in April or May, when the shad appear, and the edible berries (pomes) ripen in June or July, whence they are called Juneberries. The plant is also called service tree, and Juneberry. — Shad frog, an American spotted frog (Rana halecina); - - so called because it usually appears at the time when the shad begin to run in the rivers. — Trout shad, the squeteague. — White shad, the common shad.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.