SHARK

Any one of numerous species of elasmobranch fishes of the order Plagiostomi, found in all seas.

A rapacious, artful person; a sharper. [Colloq.]

Trickery; fraud; petty rapine; as, to live upon the shark. [Obs.] South. Baskin shark, Liver shark, Nurse shark, Oil shark, Sand shark, Tiger shark, etc. See under Basking, Liver, etc. See also Dogfish, Houndfish, Notidanian, and Tope. -- Gray shark, the sand shark. -- Hammer-headed shark. See Hammerhead. -- Port Jackson shark. See Cestraciont. -- Shark barrow, the eggcase of a shark; a sea purse. -- Shark ray. Same as Angel fish (a), under Angel. -- Thrasher shark, or Thresher shark, a large, voracious shark. See Thrasher. -- Whale shark, a huge harmless shark (Rhinodon typicus) of the Indian Ocean. It becomes sixty feet or more in length, but has very small teeth.

To pick or gather indiscriminately or covertly. [Obs.] Shak.

To play the petty thief; to practice fraud or trickery; to swindle. Neither sharks for a cup or a reckoning. Bp. Earle.

To live by shifts and stratagems. Beau & Fl.