Definition of "stickleback" []

• Any of various small freshwater and marine fishes of the family Gasterosteidae, having erectile spines along the back. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "On the crest of a cross-grained stickleback, that is caught with a crooked pin;"
• "One wife, however, does not suffice to fill the nest with eggs; and the stickleback is a firm believer in the advantages of large families."
• "For, like almost all polygamists, your stickleback is a terrible fighter."