coach-whipn.
1.
a. A whip used in driving a coach.
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society > travel > transport > transport or conveyance in a vehicle > driving or operating a vehicle > [noun] > art of driving horse-drawn vehicle > whip
postilion whip1621
cart-whip1713
gad-whip1819
coach-whip1833
1833 J. Rennie Alphabet Sci. Angling 65 The best lines..run taper like the lash of a coach-whip.
b. One of two Australian birds, Psophodes olivaceus or Pachycephala rufiventris.
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the world > animals > birds > order Passeriformes (singing) > family Muscicapidae (thrushes, etc.) > [noun] > subfamily Orthorhynchidae > psophodes olivaceus (whip-bird)
coach-whip1793
whip-bird1845
the world > animals > birds > order Passeriformes (singing) > family Muscicapidae (thrushes, etc.) > [noun] > subfamily Pachycephalinae > genus Pachycephala
coach-whip1793
thunder-birda1827
coachman1827
olive whistler1911
1793 W. Tench Compl. Acct. Settlem. Port Jackson xvii. 175 To one [of the smaller birds], not bigger than a tom-tit, we have given the name of coach-whip, from its note exactly resembling the smack of a whip.
1827 Trans. Linn. Soc. 15 330 The loud cracking whip-like noise it makes (from whence the colonists give it the name of Coach-whip) may be heard from a great distance.
1848 H. W. Haygarth Recoll. Bush Life Austral. i. 7 The ‘coach-whip’, with his peculiar jerking cry.
1936 M. Franklin All that Swagger xxxiii. 310 There were..honey-eaters, coach-whips, wagtails, tits and robins.
c. elliptical. Any of the various coach-whip snakes, esp. Masticophis flagellum. U.S.
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the world > animals > reptiles > order Squamata (lizards and snakes) > suborder Ophidia (snakes) > types of snake > [noun] > family Colubridae > miscellaneous types of > member of genus Masticophis
whip-snake1774
switch-snake1791
racer1818
coach-whip1827
prairie snake1832
1827 J. L. Williams View W. Florida 29 The coach-whip is most frequently seen in the pine barrens; he resembles a coach-whip, with a black handle; but is very innocent.
1835 W. G. Simms Partisan 255 The skin of a monstrous coachwhip which..he had been successful enough..to kill without bruising.
1887 Sci. Amer. LVII. 7 A ‘coach-whip’, a snake much like the common black snakes in form, but in color a very dark brown some two thirds of its length.
1943 Clarke County Democrat (Grove Hill, Alabama) 12 Aug. 2/2 He was a coach-whip, which measured 72 inches in length.
2. figurative. A long thin strip; plural shreds, tatters.
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1781 Lieut. Archer in Naval Chron. 11 288 The Sails began to fly..into coach whips.
Categories »
3. Nautical. ‘The pendant’ (Adm. Smyth).
4. attributive, as coach-whip bird, coach-whip snake (see quots.).
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1737 Dr. Mortimer in Philos. Trans. 1735–6 (Royal Soc.) 39 256 The Coach-whip Snake; so called from its being very long and slender like a Coach-whip.
1796 J. Morse Amer. Universal Geogr. (new ed.) I. 219 The Coach whip snake..is 6 or 7 feet long, and very slender and active.
1884 Cassell's Family Mag. Apr. 271/2 The ‘coach~whip’ bird..has a loud, full note, ending sharply like the crack of a whip.
1918 J. A. Leach Austral. Bird Bk. (ed. 4) 151 Rufous-breasted Whistler (Thickhead), Little Thrush, Ring Coachman, Coachwhip-Bird.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1891; most recently modified version published online December 2020).
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