| 释义 |
thornback|ˈθɔːnbæk|
Forms: see thorn n. and back n.1; also 5 -bagge, 7 -bage, -bagg.
1. The common ray or skate (Raia clavata) of British seas, used as food, distinguished by having several rows of short sharp spines arranged along the back and tail. Also called † thorny-back (obs.).
c1300Havelok 759 Þe Butte, þe schulle, þe þornebake. Ibid. 832. 1392 Earl Derby's Exp. (Camden) 155 Pro vj thornebakkes, iiij d. c1440Anc. Cookery in Househ. Ord. (1790) 469 A codlynge or whitynge, or thornbagge, or hadok. 1594Nashe Unfort. Trav. 16 My cape cloake..ouer-spreading my backe like a thorne-backe. 1605Shuttleworths' Acc. (Chetham Soc.) 170 One thornbage and fyve flokes vjd. 1653H. Cogan tr. Pinto's Trav. xxiv. (1663) 89 We saw Fishes in the Shape of Thornbacks, that were four fathoms about, and had a Muzzle like an Ox. 1859Yarrell's Brit. Fishes II. 582 The Thornback and its female the Maid. 1861Hulme tr. Moquin-Tandon ii. iii. i. 106 The Thorn⁓back.., from the shores of the Mediterranean, is of a brown colour, spotted with white and black. The body attains a length of twelve feet.
b. As the name of other species of ray: see quots.
1731Medley Kolben's Cape G. Hope II. 202 The Cape Thornback is a broad flat fish from three quarters of an inch to an inch thick. 1898Morris Austral Eng., Thornback, Name for one of the Stingrays, Raia lemprieri, Richards.
†c. fig. Opprobriously applied to a person.
1599Nashe Lenten Stuffe (1871) 101 To be held a flat thornback, or sharp pricking dog-fish to the public weal.
2. a. Short for thornback crab: see 4.
1891in Cent. Dict.
b. Provincial name of the stickleback.
1859Yarrell's Brit. Fishes (ed. 3) II. 75 Rough-tailed Stickleback. Pinkeen..Thornback. c1904E. Smith (MS.) Warwick. Gloss. (E.D.D.), Thorn-back, a small fish with a strong back fin. It abounds in the Avon, but it is not the stickleback.
†3. An old maid. slang. Obs.
The female young of the thornback is called maid (maid n.1 7), and maiden-skate (Sc.).
1694Motteux Rabelais v. iv, Whether when they were Maids, or Thornbacks, in their Prime, or at their last Prayers. 1709Brit. Apollo II. No. 70. 2/2 Meeting with three Thornbacks.., I treated them. 1898Daily News 14 Mar. 4/7 After 25, young ladies were called ‘thorn-backs’ by the much marrying Puritans of New England.
4. attrib., as thornback crab, a species of spider-crab or sea-spider, Maia squinado, called also in U.S. king-crab; † thornback dog, a kind of dog-fish or shark of the genus Galeus; thornback ray = sense 1; thornback skate (see quot.).
1668Wilkins Real Char. ii. v. §3. 132 Thornback Dog, [margin] Galeus spinax. 1862Couch Brit. Fishes I. 99 Thornback Ray, Ray-maid... This is one of the commonest of the Rays, and the most valued. 1875Melbourne Spectator 28 Aug. 201/3 A thornback skate [Raia rostrata],..weighing 109 lbs., has been caught..at North Arm.
Hence † ˈthornbackly a. Obs., of the nature of a thornback: cf. 1 c above.
1605Tryall Chev. v. ii. in Bullen Old Pl. (1884) III. 350 The Thornbackly slave! |