prawn

/prɔn/

/prɔn/

Other forms: prawns; prawning

A prawn is a crustacean that resembles a big shrimp, with long antennae and a shell. When you see prawns on a menu, just imagine large, juicy shrimp.

The words shrimp and prawn are used interchangeably so often that the difference between them has blurred. In many English-speaking parts of the world, prawn is the more common term, while North Americans reserve that word for freshwater shrimp (as opposed to ocean shrimp). Prawn is a common name, rather than a scientific one — if you want to sound knowledgable, you can call this animal a decapod crustacean of the sub-order Dendrobranchiata.

Definitions of prawn

1. noun

   shrimp-like decapod crustacean having two pairs of pincers; most are edible
   types:

   Palaemon australis, long-clawed prawn, river prawn

   large (a foot or more) edible freshwater prawn common in Australian rivers

   type of:

   decapod, decapod crustacean

   crustaceans characteristically having five pairs of locomotor appendages each joined to a segment of the thorax
2. noun

   any of various edible decapod crustaceans
   synonyms: shrimp

   types:

   river prawn

   large Australian prawn

   type of:

   seafood

   edible fish (broadly including freshwater fish) or shellfish or roe etc
3. verb

   fish for prawns
   type of:

   fish

   catch or try to catch fish or shellfish