Meanings
plural chiselmouths
- A fish of species Gila alutacea (formerly Acrocheilus alutaceus) native to the Pacific Northwest of North America.
The large black chub (Acrocheilus alutaceus), of the Pacific Coast rivers, is known locally as chiselmouth, squaremouth and hardmouth.
1903, Frederick Converse Beach, editor, The Encyclopedia Americana, volume 4, page 6501 more example
In British Columbia, hybrids between the chiselmouth and the northern pikeminnow are common in Missezula Lake and Wolfe Creek (both near Princeton).
2007 September 28, J.D. McPhail, The Freshwater Fishes of British Columbia, University of Alberta, →ISBN, page 57Synonyms: squaremouth, hard-mouth chub
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA fish of species Gila alutacea (formerly Acrocheilus alutaceus) native to the Pacific Northwest of North America.
Origin
From chisel + mouth. Named for the sharp plate on its lower jaw, which the fish uses to scrape algae from rocks.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
chiselmouth. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/chiselmouth
“chiselmouth.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/chiselmouth. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “chiselmouth,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/chiselmouth.
Source: chiselmouth on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.