batfish

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bat·fish

(băt′fĭsh′)

n. pl. batfish or bat·fish·es

Any of various marine anglerfishes of the family Ogcocephalidae, having a laterally compressed body with a large disklike head, expanded pectoral fins, and a retractable appendage above the mouth.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

batfish

(ˈbætˌfɪʃ)

n, pl -fish or -fishes

(Animals) any angler of the family Ogcocephalidae, having a flattened scaleless body and moving on the sea floor by means of fleshy pectoral and pelvic fins

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

bat•fish

(ˈbætˌfɪʃ)

n., pl. (esp. collectively) -fish, (esp. for kinds or species) -fish•es.

1. any flat-bodied marine fish of the family Ogcocephalidae, as Ogcocephalus vespertilio, common in warm SW Atlantic coastal waters.

2. a stingray, Aetobatis californicus .

[1900–05]

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Noun

batfish - bottom-dweller of warm western Atlantic coastal waters having a flattened scaleless body that crawls about on fleshy pectoral and pelvic fins

family Ogcocephalidae, Ogcocephalidae - batfishes: sluggish bottom-dwelling spiny fishes

acanthopterygian, spiny-finned fish - a teleost fish with fins that are supported by sharp inflexible rays

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