Definition of "sunfish" [sun•fish]

• Any of various small North American percoid freshwater fishes of the family Centrarchidae, having laterally compressed, often brightly colored bodies and including the crappies, black bass, bluegill, and pumpkinseed. (noun)
• Any of several large marine fishes of the family Molidae, especially the ocean sunfish. (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.

• "Some big cities are using bluegills, sometimes known as sunfish or brim -- brim, wherever you live."
• "Some biologists consider the fishes a “superclass, ” and divide them into three classes: bony fishes, such as sunfish and cod; fishes with a skeleton formed of cartilage rather than bone, such as sharks; and fishes that lack jaws, such as lampreys."
• "When one of these "sunfish," as the fishermen call them, is lifted from the water, the clay-coloured eggs may be seen to stream from it in myriads."