eel

Everyday

An eel is a long, thin fish that looks like a snake and has slippery skin. tree →

In the lessons

In science lessons on rivers and the sea, eels are fish with fins and gills, and some travel huge distances to breed; the electric eel can give an electric shock. «Slippery as an eel» describes someone hard to catch or pin down.

Examples

• An eel slid out from under the rock. tree →
• Eels look like snakes, but they are fish. tree →
• The electric eel can give a strong shock. tree →
• The fisherman caught an eel in the river. tree →
• The puppy was as slippery as an eel in the bath. tree →
• Some eels swim across the ocean to lay their eggs. tree →
• Moray eels hide in holes in the reef. tree →

Note

Countable: an eel, two eels. Starts with a vowel sound, so «an eel». Trap: eels are fish, not snakes or worms. The electric eel is not actually a true eel but a kind of knifefish.