Meanings
plural grilses · alternative gilse
- A young salmon after its first return from the sea.
In our own tongue salmon are fry as babies, parr as children, smolt as adolescents, and grilse as adults.
1961, Albert Upton, Design for Thinking: A First Book in Semantics, Stanford University Press, page 41 more example
[T]hey ca' it fasting when they hae the best o' fish frae Hartlepool and Sunderland by land carriage, forbye trouts, gilses, salmon, and a' the lave o't, and so they make their very fasting a kind of luxury and abomination; […]
They call it fasting when they have the best of fish from Hartlepool and Sunderland by land carriage, forby [i.e., besides] trouts, grilses, salmon, and all the rest of it, and so they make their fasting a kind of luxury and abomination; […]
1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], chapter [VI], in Rob Roy. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 133Synonyms: grilt
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA young salmon after its first return from the sea.
Origin
- Middle Englishgrills
- Englishgrilse
From Middle English grills, grilles, of unknown origin. Cognate with Scots grils, grissill, girls (“young salmon”). Compare English grawl, Scots grawl, graulse (“young salmon, grilse”).
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Finnish lohi
- lohiyoung salmon
Greek σολομάκι, σολομός ηλικίας 4 ετών
- σολομάκι (solomáki)young salmon
- σολομός ηλικίας 4 ετών (solomós ilikías 4 etón)young salmon
Irish bláthán
- bláthányoung salmon
Persian آزادماهی
- آزادماهی (âzâdmâhi)young salmon
Polish smolt
- smoltyoung salmon
Welsh gleisiad
- gleisiadyoung salmon
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with grilse
All rhymes →Anagrams
Cite this entry
grilse. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/grilse
“grilse.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/grilse. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “grilse,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/grilse.
Source: grilse on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.