silverfish

noun sil·ver·fish \ ˈsil-vər-ˌfish \

|Updated on: 6 Jul 2018

Definition of silverfish

1 : any of various silvery fishes (such as a tarpon or silverside)

2 : any of various small wingless insects (order Thysanura); especially : one (Lepisma saccharina) found in houses and sometimes injurious especially to sized papers or starched clothes

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Recent Examples of silverfish from the Web

Their menu of choice includes ants, silverfish, beetle larvae, spiders, and even roaches.

— margeaux sippell, BostonGlobe.com, "It has 30 legs and hides in your basement in summer. Don’t kill it," 26 June 2018
Even nonhumans, such as bookworms (so called) and silverfish, that lurk around inside them are given consideration.

— john glassie, New York Times, "Codices, Termites and Floral Notes: The Wondrous Life of ‘The Library’," 1 June 2018
The earliest known insect fossil is a 385-million-year-old wingless creature that looks like a silverfish.

— lucas joel, Scientific American, "Mysterious Insect Fossil Gap Explained," 1 May 2018
Compounds found in the feces of some bugs – including roaches like Periplaneta americana and silverfishes like Lepisma saccharina – can produce allergic reactions in some people, and even cause asthma.

— prayan pokharel, Smithsonian, "How Insect Poop Could Solve All Our Problems," 17 Aug. 2017
These are the Jose Gourmet varieties that Kolender loves, plus his tips on serving them: These small silverfish come bathed in red pepper, carrot, piri-piri chiles, cloves, and laurel.

— karen palmer, Bon Appetit, "The Best Ways to Serve Tinned Fish," 23 Oct. 2017
Both like it moist, but silverfish prefer cool places, while firebrats, as their name suggests, go for warmth.

— ellen nibali, baltimoresun.com, "Garden Q&A: Emerald ash borer," 4 May 2017
Some papers have been eaten away by silverfish; others have gotten wet and smudged.

— tim parks, New York Times, "One of Florence’s Oldest Families and Its 600-Year Archive," 11 May 2016
House centipedes (Scutigera coleoptrata) tend to lurk in the humid areas of homes looking for prey, including cockroaches, termites, spiders, and silverfish.

— katina beniaris, Country Living, "The Reason Why You Should Never Kill a House Centipede," 25 May 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'silverfish.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.