whitebait's Usage Examples:

"It is now known to consist of the young fry of herrings and sprats in varying proportions mixed with a few shrimps, gobies, sticklebacks, pope-fishes and young flounders: but these impurities are as far as possible picked out from the whitebait before it is marketed.

A4 B C Meridian ci of Greenwich DAt Greenwich an annual banquet of cabinet ministers, known as the whitebait dinner, formerly took place.

Tidal waters furnish minute whitebait, and the mud-flats of salt or brackish lagoons and estuaries flounders - both very delicate eating.

Donovan, in his Natural History of British Fishes (1802-1808), misled by specimens sent to him as whitebait, declared it to be the young of the shad.

Formerly whitebait was supposed to be a distinct species of fish.

The Thames being unequal to the supply of the large demand for this delicacy, large quantities of whitebait are now brought to London and other markets from many parts of the coast.

In times past whitebait were considered to be peculiar to the estuary of the Thames; and, even after the specific identification of Thames whitebait with the young of the herring and sprat, it was still thought that there was a distinctive superiority in its condition and flavour.

When the view commenced to gain ground that whitebait were largely young herring, the question arose whether or not the immense destruction of the young brood caused by this mode of fishing injuriously affected the fishery of the mature herring.

At Greenwich an annual banquet of cabinet ministers, known as the whitebait dinner, formerly took place.

It is now known to consist of the young fry of herrings and sprats in varying proportions mixed with a few shrimps, gobies, sticklebacks, pope-fishes and young flounders: but these impurities are as far as possible picked out from the whitebait before it is marketed.

Indeed, Thames whitebait which have been compared with that from the mouth of the Exe, the Cornish coast, Menai Strait, and the Firth of Forth seemed to be better fed; but, of course, the specific characteristics of the herring and sprat - into which we need not enter here - were nowise modified.

It is possible that the young fish find in the estuary of the Thames a larger amount of suitable food than on other parts of the coast, where the water may be of greater purity, but possesses less abundance of the minute animal life on which whitebait thrive.

Synonyms:

herring,

Antonyms:

spiny-finned fish,