ENGLISH
REFERENCE

shrimp

n.
US //ˈʃɹɪmp// UK //ʃɹˈɪmp// shrimp
  1. 1 the animal (n.)
    A2 Elementary Science

    a small shellfish with a long tail and many legs that lives in the sea.

    any of various small, aquatic decapod crustaceans, typically belonging to the suborder Dendrobranchiata or infraorder Caridea.

    Example

    The children found a tiny shrimp in a pool of water at the beach.

    Example

    Marine biologists observed the shrimp migrating toward deeper waters as the coastal temperatures began to fluctuate during the autumn months.
  2. 2 small person (n.)
    B2 Upper Intermediate Informal Slang

    a person who is very small or thin.

    a derogatory term for a person perceived as small, weak, or physically unimposing.

    Example

    He was a bit of a shrimp in high school, but he grew much taller later.

    Example

    The older boys teased him, calling him a shrimp because he was the shortest student in the entire grade.
    • runt
    • weakling
Origin

From Middle English schrimpe (“shrimp, puny person”), possibly from or related to Middle Low German schrempen (“to wrinkle”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic skrimpaz (“shrivelled”), from Proto-Germanic skrimpaną (“to shrivel”), from Proto-Indo-European skremb-, skr̥mb-. See also Middle High German schrimpf (“a scratch, minor wound”), Norwegian skramp (“thin horse, thin man”); also Old English sċrimman (“to shrink”) and scrimp, Middle High German schrimpfen (“to shrink, dry up”), Swedish skrympa (“to shrink”); also Lithuanian skrembti (“to crust over, stiffen”), and possibly Albanian shkrumb (“embers, ashes; crumble”).

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Last updated June 20, 2026