parrotfish

noun (plural same or parrotfishes)

• 1any of a number of brightly coloured marine fish with a parrot-like beak, which they use to scrape food from coral and other hard surfaces:

  • a widespread fish of warm seas which may secrete a mucous cocoon to deter predators (family Scaridae: Scarus and other genera). an edible fish of the southern Indian ocean (Oplegnathus conwayi, family Oplegnathidae).

• 2Australian/NZ a brightly coloured marine fish, especially one of the wrasse family.

  • Several species in the family Labridae