hawk's-billn.
1. (Also hawk's-bill turtle.) A species of turtle, Chelone imbricata, having a mouth resembling the beak of a hawk, inhabiting the Indian Ocean and the warmer parts of the Atlantic, and furnishing the tortoiseshell of commerce. Also hawkbill n.
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the world > animals > reptiles > order Chelonia (turtles and tortoises) > [noun] > suborder Cryptodira > family Cheloniidae > member of genus Eretmochelys (hawk's-bill)
hawk's-bill turtle1657
whooping turtle1712
hawkbilla1757
tortoiseshell turtle1886
1657 R. Ligon True Hist. Barbados 4 The Loggerhead Turtle, and the Hawks bill Turtle, of which sorts, the latter is the best.
1697 W. Dampier New Voy. around World v. 103 The Hawksbill Turtle is the least kind; they are so called because their mouths..[resemble] the Bill of a Hawk: On the backs of these Hawksbill Turtle grows that Shell which is so much esteem'd for making Cabinets, Combs [etc.].
1712 E. Cooke Voy. S. Sea 20 There is Plenty of Tortoises, or Turtle, but not very good to eat, being a sort of Hawksbill.
1892 Chambers's Jrnl. 14 May 318/2 The thirteen plates of tortoise~shell on the carapace of the hawk's-bill tortoise.
2. Part of the striking action of a clock.
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1875 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. Hawk's bill, a catch-piece attached to a vibrating arm, which acts as a detent in the rack of the striking part of a clock, and assists in effecting the proper number of strokes.
3. (See quot. 1708.)
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the world > animals > invertebrates > subkingdom Metazoa > grade Triploblastica or Coelomata > class Pelecypoda or Conchifera > [noun] > section Asiphonida > family Ostreidae > fossil of genus Gryphoea
ague shell1708
hawk's-bill1708
boat oyster1816
1708 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 26 78 Gryphites, the Hawk's Bill, or Ague-shell.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1898; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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