Meanings
plural barracouta loaves
- New ZealandA long, narrow loaf, often indented in the middle so that it can be broken in two.
As Clarry remembered we were a big family—a twenty-five double barracouta loaves and fifteen pints a week family.
2000, anonymous author, “Home Town”, in Gordon McLauchlan, editor, Morrieson’s Motel, Auckland: Tandem Press, page 1991 more example
Alice was making water-cress sandwiches. She had a lump of butter on the table, a barracouta loaf, and the cresses tumbled in a white cloth.
1918, Katherine Mansfield, “Prelude”, in Bliss and Other Stories, Toronto: Macmillan, published 1920, page 53
Origin
After the regional name for a thin, metre-long fish, from the shape of the loaf and its rough crust, thought to resemble the back of the fish.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
barracouta loaf. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/barracouta%20loaf
“barracouta loaf.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/barracouta%20loaf. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “barracouta loaf,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/barracouta%20loaf.
Source: barracouta loaf on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.