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Clam vs Starfish - What's the difference?

clam | starfish |

As nouns the difference between clam and starfish

is that clam is a bivalve mollusk of many kinds, especially those that are edible; as, the long clam (species: Mya arenaria), the quahog or round clam (Venus mercenaria), the sea clam or hen clam (species: Spisula solidissima), and other species of the United States. The name is said to have been given originally to the species: Tridacna gigas, a huge East Indian bivalve while starfish is any of various asteroids or other echinoderms (not in fact fish) with usually five arms, many of which eat bivalves or corals by everting their stomach.

As a verb clam

is to dig for clams.

clam

English

(wikipedia clam)

Etymology 1

From (etyl) .

Noun

(en noun)
  • A bivalve mollusk of many kinds, especially those that are edible; as, the long clam (, a huge East Indian bivalve.
  • * , chapter=3
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=My hopes wa'n't disappointed. I never saw clams' thicker than they was along them inshore flats. I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that 'twouldn't be a bad idee to get a lot more, take 'em with me to Wellmouth, and peddle 'em out. ' Clams was fairly scarce over that side of the bay and ought to fetch a fair price.}}
  • Strong pincers or forceps.
  • A kind of vise, usually of wood.
  • (US, slang) A dollar (usually used in the plural). Possibly originating from the term wampum.
  • (slang, derogatory) A Scientologist.
  • * {{quote-newsgroup, year=1998, date=23 February, author=
  • jesparolini, title=CO$ Celebrities: USEFUL IDIOTS citation

    Verb

    (clamm)
  • To dig for clams.
  • Derived terms

    * American jackknife clam * Atlantic jackknife clam * bamboo clam * clam chowder * clamshell * clam up * giant clam * piss clam * razor clam

    See also

    * clammy

    Etymology 2

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A crash or clangor made by ringing all the bells of a chime at once.
  • (Nares)

    Verb

    (clamm)
  • To produce, in bellringing, a clam or clangor; to cause to clang.
  • (Nares)

    Etymology 3

    Noun

  • clamminess; moisture
  • * Carlyle
  • The clam of death.

    Verb

    (clamm)
  • To be moist or glutinous; to stick; to adhere.
  • (Dryden)
  • To clog, as with glutinous or viscous matter.
  • * L'Estrange
  • A swarm of wasps got into a honey pot, and there they cloyed and clammed themselves till there was no getting out again.
    (Webster 1913)

    Anagrams

    * ----

    starfish

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • Any of various asteroids or other echinoderms (not in fact fish) with usually five arms, many of which eat bivalves or corals by everting their stomach.
  • (vulgar, slang, usually in translations of Japanese pornography) an anus. See also chocolate starfish.
  • (obsolete) Any many-armed or tentacled sea invertebrate, whether cnidarian, echinoderm, or cephalopod.
  • * 1755 , , trans. Isaac Kimbler, Explanation of the Plate of Uncommon Star Fish, Extracted from the Natural History of Norway
  • But the largest of the star-fish' kind is that sea monster called kruken, kraken or krabben. [...] As this enormous sea-animal in all probability may be reckoned of the polype, or of the ' star-fish , kind, it seems that the parts which are seen rising at its pleasure, and are called arms, are properly the tentacula, or feeding instruments, called horns as well as arms.

    Synonyms

    * (various echinoderms) sea star, asteroid

    See also

    * Starfish site English nouns with irregular plurals