sardine1
/sɑːˈdiːn
/noun
1A young pilchard or other young or small herring-like fish.Fish high in EPA and DHA include salmon, mackerel, sardines, herring, anchovies, rainbow trout, bluefish and white albacore tuna canned in water....
- Salmon, mackerel, herring, sardines, pilchards and fresh tuna are the best source of Omega 3 which is rich in Eicosapentaenoic acid.
- Salmon, tuna, swordfish, mackerel, sardines, anchovies pompano, bluefish - they're forgiving in the kitchen and big enough to take on some bigger beers.
2 (sardines) [treated as singular] British A children’s game based on hide-and-seek, in which one child hides and the other children, as they find the hider, join him or her in the hiding place until just one child remains.Leah, Jeremy, Demi, and Wesley were playing a game of sardines, a variation of hide-and-seek, in the orchard....
- Or discover where Mrs Blair likes to hide when she plays sardines?
- Not much later the whole group played a gigantic game of sardines throughout the church.
verb [with object] informal
Pack closely together: we sardined our dismantled bikes into the boot...
- Without the usual record business hangers-on to chatter over the music, it was an intense experience being sardined with 200 earnest fans all trying to digest and memorise 90 minutes of new music.
- Though I'm sardined with card-carrying IFSA members, they're not much different.
- Fast forward to Scarlett O'Hara clutching the bedpost as she was sardined into her stays.
Phrases
packed like sardines
Origin
Late Middle English: from French, or from Latin sardina, from sarda, from Greek, probably from Sardō 'Sardinia'.
Rhymes
sardine2
/ˈsɑːdʌɪn/noun
Another term for sardius.The Sardine stone represented Benjamin, the youngest of the twelve sons of Jacob.
Origin
Late Middle English: via late Latin from Greek sardinos, variant of sardios (see sardius).