What Does “A Risk of Lobsters” Mean?
“Risk” is the standard collective noun for a group of lobsters, and it’s one of the odder entries on this site, mostly because there’s no solid, documented explanation for where it comes from. It doesn’t trace back to the old medieval hunting-term tradition the way many bird and mammal collective nouns do, since lobsters weren’t hunted quarry in that sense, so it’s most likely a later, invented word chosen for how memorable and unusual it sounds.
It’s also worth being clear that “risk” isn’t describing real lobster social behavior. Lobsters are solitary, territorial animals that live alone in burrows and aggressively defend their space from other lobsters, they’re about as far from a cooperative group as a crustacean gets. If there’s any real-world connection to the word, it might be the literal risk involved in handling them: lobster claws can do serious damage, which is why lobsters kept together in tanks typically have their claws banded.
Example: “The trap came up holding a full risk of lobsters.”
Related: Collective Nouns for Crustaceans · What Is a Group of Lobsters Called?