How to Use hagfish in a Sentence

hagfish

noun
  • But why would the hagfish discharge so much slime without any sharks around?
    — National Geographic, 14 July 2017
  • The videos also reveal that at least one species of hagfish can go on the attack.
    — Ed Yong, Discover Magazine, 9 May 2012
  • Technically, the fish were not eels, but hagfish, which have a skull but no jaw or spine.
    — OregonLive.com, 29 Dec. 2017
  • This slime can clog the gills of other fishes and protects the hagfish from predators.
    — Nicola Di Girolamo, The Conversation, 24 July 2019
  • And, thanks to a lack of vertebrae, a hagfish can tie itself in a knot to avoid slime from coating its own face.
    — Alex Horton, Washington Post, 14 July 2017
  • The hagfish fills its potential attackers’ mouths and gills with goo.
    — Laura Yan, Popular Mechanics, 18 Aug. 2018
  • In some cases, a single hagfish can fill a 5-gallon bucket with its slime!
    — Nicola Di Girolamo, The Conversation, 24 July 2019
  • The skin of the hagfish has been described as covering its body like a loosely fitting sock.
    — Mary Bates, WIRED, 3 Nov. 2014
  • Now scientists have learned that this mucus is a precious resource for a hagfish.
    — Elizabeth Preston, Discover Magazine, 29 Mar. 2018
  • The idea would be to use the slime like the hagfish do, deploying it in the face of approaching predators.
    — Maya Wei-Haas, Smithsonian, 27 Feb. 2017
  • The slime -- a type of mucus - from a hagfish can expand to more than five gallons when combined with water.
    — Jim Ryan, NOLA.com, 14 July 2017
  • In fact, Glover found that a hagfish’s skin can absorb nutrients faster than its intestines!
    — Ed Yong, Discover Magazine, 2 Mar. 2011
  • The slime — a type of mucus — from a hagfish can expand to more than 5 gallons when combined with water.
    — Jim Ryan, Alaska Dispatch News, 14 July 2017
  • Instead, their mouth was a cone-like opening similar to the ones seen in modern hagfish and lampreys.
    — Isaac Skromne, The Conversation, 18 July 2022
  • The slime could also give the hagfish a competitive edge among other scavengers.
    — Ed Yong, Discover Magazine, 14 Feb. 2012
  • First, mobile scavengers like sleeper sharks, hagfish, and isopods travel long distances to feast on the carcass.
    — Popsci Staff, Popular Science, 10 May 2023
  • For instance, if a predator gets a good hold on a hagfish, the animal can wriggle out of its grasp by tying itself into a knot.
    — National Geographic, 10 Mar. 2017
  • The hagfish completely ignored the bait that Zintzen was offering.
    — Ed Yong, Discover Magazine, 14 Feb. 2012
  • Depoe Bay Fire crews assisted cleaning up the highway by hosing the hagfish and slime off the roadway.
    — Ruth Brown, idahostatesman, 13 July 2017
  • To put this in context, the first vertebrate (the hagfish) is estimated to have arrived 450 million years ago.
    — Cyra Richardson, Forbes, 7 Apr. 2021
  • In every case the hagfish emerged unharmed while the predators fled the scene, gagging on the irritating slime that rapidly expands in seawater and clogs the gills.
    — Ed Yong, Discover Magazine, 9 May 2012
  • The after-hours family-friendly event will feature a make-your-own-slime station, a whale boneyard and appearances by the aforementioned hagfish.
    — Karla Peterson, sandiegouniontribune.com, 13 Oct. 2017
  • The after-hours, family-friendly event will feature a make-your-own-slime station, a whale boneyard, appearances by the aforementioned hagfish and more.
    — Lisa Deaderick, sandiegouniontribune.com, 20 Oct. 2017
  • Scientists have found similar extra chromosomes in hagfishes and some insects.
    — Kate Wong, Scientific American, 1 Nov. 2019
  • Writhing, slimy hagfish hit the road -- literally -- on Thursday, when a truck carrying the sea creatures lost its load south of Depoe Bay.
    — OregonLive.com, 19 July 2017
  • In another example, Jeong shares that at the start, her Korean production partners were nervous about telling the story of hagfish in the show.
    — Sara Merican, Deadline, 13 Oct. 2025
  • According to the research, these structures are inconsistent with the keratinous teeth found in lampreys and hagfish, two vertebrates thought to be distant relatives.
    — Jamie Dickman, Popular Science, 17 Apr. 2023
  • Right away, our eyes landed on Lohan’s bag — the $4,850 Fendi Spy Small handbag in luxurious burgundy hagfish leather, to be exact.
    — Jamie Allison Sanders, PEOPLE, 18 Sep. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hagfish.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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