eel

/il/

/il/

Other forms: eels

An eel is a fish that's so long and skinny it resembles a snake. Most eels live in very shallow ocean waters, burrowing into the sand there.

Eels are a type of fish, and though they are as long and flexible as snakes, they don't have scales, and if you look closely you can see they have a long, low fin. Eels are famous for being slippery, and in fact to be "as slippery as an eel" means to be so sneaky and cunning that you can get away with something illegal or illicit. This figurative meaning dates from the 16th century.

Definitions of eel

1. noun

   voracious snakelike marine or freshwater fishes with smooth slimy usually scaleless skin and having a continuous vertical fin but no ventral fins
   types:

   elver

   young eel

   common eel, freshwater eel

   eels that live in fresh water as adults but return to sea to spawn; found in Europe and America; marketed both fresh and smoked

   Anguilla sucklandii, tuna

   New Zealand eel

   moray, moray eel

   family of brightly colored voracious eels of warm coastal waters; generally nonaggressive to humans but larger species are dangerous if provoked

   conger, conger eel

   large dark-colored scaleless marine eel found in temperate and tropical coastal waters; some used for food

   type of:

   malacopterygian, soft-finned fish

   any fish of the superorder Malacopterygii
2. noun

   the fatty flesh of eel; an elongate fish found in fresh water in Europe and America; large eels are usually smoked or pickled
   types:

   smoked eel

   eel cured by smoking

   elver

   young eel; may be sauteed or batter-fried

   type of:

   fish

   the flesh of fish used as food