any of several edible marine crustaceans of the families Homaridae and Nephropsidae and Palinuridae
"The chef prepared a steamed lobster from the family Homaridae, serving it as the centerpiece of the dinner."
A crustacean of the Nephropidae family, dark green or blue-black in colour turning bright red when cooked, with a hard shell and claws, which is used as a seafood.
"The chef boiled the live lobster until its hard shell turned from deep blue to a vibrant red before serving it as seafood."
In plain English: A lobster is a large, spiny sea creature with ten legs and claws that people often cook as food.
"We ate boiled lobster for dinner at the seafood restaurant."
To fish for lobsters.
"The crew spent the morning lobstering off the rocky coast before returning to shore."
red-colored, especially from a sunburn.
"After spending too long in the sun without sunscreen, his skin turned as bright red as a cooked lobster."
"The lobster trap was full of waterlogged bait that had been left out too long."
Usage: Use "lobster" as an adjective to describe skin that has turned the deep pinkish-red color of a boiled crustacean, typically due to severe sunburn or intense heat exposure. This term specifically refers to the hue itself rather than implying the person looks like the animal in any other way.
The word likely comes from an Old English term meaning "sea-grasshopper," possibly derived by combining Latin locusta with a native suffix to describe this crustacean. Another theory suggests it evolved from the Old English words for spider, implying that early speakers viewed its many legs as similar to those of an arachnid.