barbel

noun

• 1a fleshy filament growing from the mouth or snout of a fish.

• 2a large European freshwater fish of the minnow family that has fleshy filaments hanging from its mouth. It lives in running water.

  • Barbus barbus, family Cyprinidae

• 3 [with modifier] a marine or freshwater African fish with barbels around the mouth.

  • Species in several families, including Tachysurus feliceps (family Aniidae), of southern African coasts and estuaries, whose toxin-coated spines can inflict a dangerous wound