Other forms: oysters
An oyster is the rough sea shell that sometimes hides a pearl inside. Fresh oysters, shuck an oyster, a dozen oysters.
The pearl is a defence: the animal coats an irritant in the same material it lines its shell with. Oysters filter enormous volumes of water and reefs of them clean estuaries. The world is your oyster comes from Shakespeare, and means the world is there to be opened.
1nounoysterA sea creature living in a rough hinged shell.
“They ate fresh oysters with lemon at a little restaurant by the harbour.”
oyster is a shellfish.
Also accepted in games: clam
Old English ostre comes through Old French from Latin ostrea, from Greek ostreon, from a root meaning bone or shell.
Ancient Greek
ὄστρεον
Latin
ostrea
Old French
oistre
Anglo-Norman
oistre
Old English
ostre
Middle English
oystre
English, today
oyster
From Middle English oystre, from Old English ostre, reinforced or superseded by Anglo-Norman oistre, which is from Old French oistre, uistre (compare modern French huître); both lines (Old English and Old French) from Latin ostrea, from Ancient Greek ὄστρεον. a doublet of ostro.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA