pufferfish

Wikispecies

From puffer +‎ fish.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpʌfɚˌfɪʃ/

• Audio (US):

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pufferfish (countable and uncountable, plural pufferfish or pufferfishes)

1. Any species of fish of the family Tetraodontidae that have the ability to inflate themselves to a globe several times their normal size by swallowing water or air when threatened; puffer, blowfish, swellfish, balloonfish, globefish.
   • 1993 December 28, James Younger, “Fishy Short Cut To Mapping Human Genome”, in The New York Times‎^[1], archived from the original on 8 December 2024:

     Recently, however, a scientist in Britain proposed a short cut that would use the genome of the fugu, a pufferfish known as a dangerous delicacy among Japanese sushi eaters, to speed the search for human genes.

2. (uncountable) The meat of these fish, a delicacy popular in Japan served raw as sushi that may, if improperly prepared, contain deadly levels of neurotoxins; (Japanese) fugu.

• (fish): balloonfish, blowfish, globefish, puffer, swellfish
• (dish): fugu