How to Use hagfish in a Sentence

hagfish

noun
Definition of hagfishnext
  • The videos also reveal that at least one species of hagfish can go on the attack.
    — Ed Yong, Discover Magazine, 9 May 2012
  • The idea would be to use the slime like the hagfish do, deploying it in the face of approaching predators.
    — Maya Wei-Haas, Smithsonian, 27 Feb. 2017
  • The idea would be to use the slime like the hagfish do, deploying it in the face of approaching predators.
    — Maya Wei-Haas, Smithsonian, 27 Feb. 2017
  • But why would the hagfish discharge so much slime without any sharks around?
    — National Geographic, 14 July 2017
  • This slime can clog the gills of other fishes and protects the hagfish from predators.
    — Nicola Di Girolamo, The Conversation, 24 July 2019
  • Technically, the fish were not eels, but hagfish, which have a skull but no jaw or spine.
    — OregonLive.com, 29 Dec. 2017
  • And, thanks to a lack of vertebrae, a hagfish can tie itself in a knot to avoid slime from coating its own face.
    — Alex Horton, Washington Post, 14 July 2017
  • The skin of the hagfish has been described as covering its body like a loosely fitting sock.
    — Mary Bates, WIRED, 3 Nov. 2014
  • The slime — a type of mucus — from a hagfish can expand to more than 5 gallons when combined with water.
    — Jim Ryan, Alaska Dispatch News, 14 July 2017
  • The slime -- a type of mucus - from a hagfish can expand to more than five gallons when combined with water.
    — Jim Ryan, NOLA.com, 14 July 2017
  • In some cases, a single hagfish can fill a 5-gallon bucket with its slime!
    — Nicola Di Girolamo, The Conversation, 24 July 2019
  • The hagfish fills its potential attackers’ mouths and gills with goo.
    — Laura Yan, Popular Mechanics, 18 Aug. 2018
  • Instead, their mouth was a cone-like opening similar to the ones seen in modern hagfish and lampreys.
    — Isaac Skromne, The Conversation, 18 July 2022
  • In fact, Glover found that a hagfish’s skin can absorb nutrients faster than its intestines!
    — Ed Yong, Discover Magazine, 2 Mar. 2011
  • Depoe Bay Fire crews assisted cleaning up the highway by hosing the hagfish and slime off the roadway.
    — Ruth Brown, idahostatesman, 13 July 2017
  • Little is known about hagfish in Alaska, although they are commonly caught elsewhere in the U.S. and abroad.
    — Laine Welch, Anchorage Daily News, 5 June 2018
  • First, mobile scavengers like sleeper sharks, hagfish, and isopods travel long distances to feast on the carcass.
    — Popsci Staff, Popular Science, 10 May 2023
  • The hagfish completely ignored the bait that Zintzen was offering.
    — Ed Yong, Discover Magazine, 14 Feb. 2012
  • The slime could also give the hagfish a competitive edge among other scavengers.
    — Ed Yong, Discover Magazine, 14 Feb. 2012
  • For instance, if a predator gets a good hold on a hagfish, the animal can wriggle out of its grasp by tying itself into a knot.
    — National Geographic, 10 Mar. 2017
  • To put this in context, the first vertebrate (the hagfish) is estimated to have arrived 450 million years ago.
    — Cyra Richardson, Forbes, 7 Apr. 2021
  • In every case the hagfish emerged unharmed while the predators fled the scene, gagging on the irritating slime that rapidly expands in seawater and clogs the gills.
    — Ed Yong, Discover Magazine, 9 May 2012
  • Writhing, slimy hagfish hit the road -- literally -- on Thursday, when a truck carrying the sea creatures lost its load south of Depoe Bay.
    — OregonLive.com, 19 July 2017
  • The after-hours, family-friendly event will feature a make-your-own-slime station, a whale boneyard, appearances by the aforementioned hagfish and more.
    — Lisa Deaderick, sandiegouniontribune.com, 20 Oct. 2017
  • The researchers obtained dead insects, hagfish, lampreys and other animals to watch them wither away.
    — Kristin Hugo, Newsweek, 21 Mar. 2018
  • The after-hours family-friendly event will feature a make-your-own-slime station, a whale boneyard and appearances by the aforementioned hagfish.
    — Karla Peterson, sandiegouniontribune.com, 13 Oct. 2017
  • According to the research, these structures are inconsistent with the keratinous teeth found in lampreys and hagfish, two vertebrates thought to be distant relatives.
    — Jamie Dickman, Popular Science, 17 Apr. 2023
  • Biologist Frederic Martini has spent his retirement squeezing into miniature submarines to plumb the abyss for the answer to an age-old question: Where do baby hagfish come from?
    — Katherine Dunn, WSJ, 4 Apr. 2017
  • In 2016, a group of scientists in the U.S. proposed a hypothesis that the Tully monster was an early vertebrate similar in some anatomical details to the modern cyclostomes (a group including today jawless fish like lamprey and hagfish).
    — David Bressan, Forbes, 18 Apr. 2023
  • Scientists have found similar extra chromosomes in hagfishes and some insects.
    — Kate Wong, Scientific American, 1 Nov. 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hagfish.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: