A very small or puny person or thing

ETYM Old Eng. shrimp; -- probably so named from its shriveled appearance. Related to Shrimp.
Crustacean related to the prawn. It has a cylindrical, semitransparent body, with ten jointed legs. Some shrimps grow as large as 25 cm/10 in long.
The European common shrimp Crangon vulgaris is greenish, translucent, has its first pair of legs ending in pincers, possesses no rostrum (the beaklike structure which extends forward from the head in some crustaceans), and has comparatively shorter antennae than the prawn.
Small slender-bodied chiefly marine decapod crustaceans with a long tail and single pair of pincers; many species are edible.

ETYM Cf. as. scrimman to dry up, wither, Mid. High Germ. schrimpfen to shrink, German schrumpfen, Dan. skrumpe, skrumpes, Da. and Swed. skrumpen shriveled. Related to Scrimp, Shrink, Shrivel.
To fish for shrimp.