mussel bedn.
/ˈmʌsl bɛd/, U.S. /ˈməs(ə)l ˌbɛd/ 1. An area of the bed of the sea or a river or lake, in which a dense population of mussels is found.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > animal husbandry > fish-keeping, farming, or breeding > [noun] > mussel-bed
mussel beda1450
mussel farm1866
the world > animals > invertebrates > subkingdom Metazoa > grade Triploblastica or Coelomata > class Pelecypoda or Conchifera > [noun] > section Asiphonida > family Mytilidae > member of (mussel) > mussel bed
mussel beda1450
mussel scalp1496
scalp?15..
mussel bank1634
lay1902
a1450 ( tr. Vegetius De Re Militari (Douce) f. 103v (MED) Þe whaale resteth hym gladliche on þe muskel bed.
1774 O. Goldsmith Hist. Earth VII. 47 It requires a year for the peopling a muscle-bed.
1792 J. Sinclair Statist. Acct. Scotl. IV. 423 The muscles are in season from September to April; but as the muscle bed lies in the parish of Foveran, I shall add no more upon the subject.
1831 A. Shiels Witch of Westcot 156 And fishing tribes, fame never own'd, Along the muscle beds were squander'd.
1869 G. C. Scott Fishing in Amer. Waters 90 At the right time of tide, the locations of the mussel-beds are plainly indicated.
1874 A. E. Verrill & S. I. Smith Rep. Invertebr. Animals Vineyard Sound 138 One of these muscle-beds, in which the animals were living, was found extending quite across the mouth of Cuttyhunk Harbor.
1915 Jrnl. Ecol. 3 69 In Bryant's Map of Norfolk (1824–1826), there is nothing marked except ‘Holme Scalp’, a mussel-bed which stretched out as far as Low Water Mark.
1933 Q. Rev. Biol. 6 478/1 Within recent years mussel beds of the upper Mississippi, which formerly were productive of shells on a commercial basis, have contained large numbers of dead and dying animals.
1993 New Scientist 16 Jan. 6/3 Oil locked up in sediments and mussel beds continues to leak into the water.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > structure of the earth > constituent materials > earth or soil > mud > [noun] > deposited by river or sea > containing shells
snail cod1649
snag-greet1651
mussel-mud1774
mussel bed1851
1851 H. Colman European Agric. & Rural Econ. (ed. 4) II. 362 Very great quantities of sea-dredge or sand are used, probably very much of the same character as the muscle-bed, much used in some parts of New England, and other maritime parts of the United States.
1864 9th Ann. Rep. Maine Board Agric. i. 42 Rock weed, muscle bed and pogy chum will make grass grow.
1874 A. M. Edwards in C. H. Hitchcock Geol. New Hampsh. i. xiv. 477 I have examined the same material, as well as that used in Salem, Mass., for the same purposes [sc. as fertilizer], and known as ‘mussel bed’.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.a1450