Meaning

2 senses
  1. Any of the fish in the family Stichaeidae.

  2. A stickleback (family Gasterosteidae).

More definitions
  • small elongate fishes of shallow northern seas; a long dorsal fin consists entirely of spines
  • small (2-4 inches) pugnacious mostly scaleless spiny-backed fishes of northern fresh and littoral waters having elaborate courtship; subjects of much research

Origin

From prickle + back.

From prickle + back.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

plural: pricklebacks
Singularprickleback
Pluralpricklebacks

regular

Synonyms

1 synonyms
Close in meaning
  • small (2-4 inches) pugnacious mostly scaleless spiny-backed fishes of northern fresh and littoral waters having elaborate courtship; subjects of much research:stickleback

Word family

1 related words

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
prickleback — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto