Giz"zard (?), n. [F. g'esier, L. gigeria, pl., the cooked entrails of poultry. Cf. Gigerium.]
1. Anat.
The second, or true, muscular stomach of birds, in which the food is crushed and ground, after being softened in the glandular stomach (crop), or lower part of the esophagus; the gigerium.
2. Zool. (a)
A thick muscular stomach found in many invertebrate animals.
(b)
A stomach armed with chitinous or shelly plates or teeth, as in certain insects and mollusks.
Gizzard shad Zool., an American herring (Dorosoma cepedianum) resembling the shad, but of little value. -- To fret the gizzard, to harass; to vex one's self; to worry. [Low] Hudibras. -- To stick in one's gizzard, to be difficult of digestion; to be offensive. [Low]
© Webster 1913.