eel

plural eels

1. Any freshwater fish of the order Anguilliformes, which are elongated and resemble snakes.

   1 more example

   Off the United States, the National Marine Fisheries Service is helping industry explore fisheries for deep shrimp, rattails, chimeras, orange roughy, smoothheads, slackjaw eels, blue hake, skates and dogfish, which the National Fisheries Institute, an industry group, in an effort to improve their marketability, has renamed cape shark.

   1995 December 26, William J. Broad, “Creatures of the Deep Find Their Way to the Table”, in The New York Times

2. A European eel (Anguilla anguilla).
3. Various other animals that resemble true eels, chiefly in shape:
   1. An electric eel (any knifefish of the genus Electrophorus)
   2. A swamp eel (any fish in the family Synbranchidae).
   3. An earthworm eel, also called the spineless eel (any fish in the family Chaudhuriidae).
   4. A spiny eel (any fish in the family Mastacembelidae).
   5. A deep-sea spiny eel (any fish in the family Notacanthidae).
   6. A conger eel, also called the Congo eel, amphiuma, and Congo snake (any salamander of the genus Amphiuma).
   7. A two-legged eel, also called the mud eel and lesser siren, Siren intermedia.
   8. A leopard eel, also called the leopard siren and reticulated siren, Siren reticulata.
   9. A rubber eel, Typhlonectes natans.
   10. A vinegar eel, a roundworm of species Turbatrix aceti.
4. Someone or something that is sneaky and/or hard to catch.

   That Dennis is a right eel, he always seems to slip away from the scene at the right time.

   3 more examples

   His expression when incredulous. "Why would you think that?" He was a slippery little eel.

   2003, Catherine Anderson, Only by Your Touch

   Philosophers and literary critics from ancient times, along with social scientists, physicians, theologians, and biblical scholars more recently, have tried to get a tentative handle, if not a firm grasp, on this "slippery eel" of humor and laughter.

   2004, F. Scott Spencer, Dancing Girls, Loose Ladies, and Women of the Cloth, page 26

   John scowled after the dog. "Never fear, my lady. I shall get the sneaky, slippery eel yet."

   2016, Jody Hedlund, Newton and Polly: A Novel of Amazing Grace, page 131

present singular third person eels · participle present eeling · participle past eeled · past eeled

1. intransitiveTo fish for eels.
2. intransitiveTo move with a sinuous motion like that of an eel.

1. A township in Cass County, Indiana, United States, probably named after the Eel River.