sunfishn.
/ˈsʌnfɪʃ/, U.S. /ˈsənˌfɪʃ/ 1. Any of numerous freshwater and marine fishes which have a compressed, discoid body, a colourful or iridescent appearance, or that bask in the sun. Cf. moonfish n.
a. Any of the large marine fishes of the family Molidae, found in tropical and temperate waters, having a cartilaginous skeleton and an almost circular laterally compressed body with tall anal and dorsal fins near the rear of the body.Also called head-fish, mola.ocean sunfish, short sunfish: see the first element.
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the world > animals > fish > superorder Acanthopterygii (spiny fins) > order Perciformes (perches) > order Tetraodontiformes (puffers) > [noun] > family Molidae (ocean sun-fish) > member of genus Mola
molebat1598
mole1601
sunfisha1630
moonfish1646
mola1678
sun perch1804
ocean sunfish1900
short diodon-
a1630 F. Higginson True Relation Last Voy. New Eng. in T. Hutchinson Hutchinson Papers (1845) I. 43 A large round fish sayling by the ship's side, about a yard in length and roundness [printed rounders] every way. The mariners called it a sunne fish; it spreadeth out the finnes like beames on every side 4 or 5.
1659 D. Pell Πελαγος 203 The Sun-fish lyes carelessly upon the salt-waters, exposing of himself in the very warmth of summer.
1730 T. Boreman Descr. Three Hundred Animals iii. 165 The Sun-Fish has a wide and short Body.
1742 Philos. Trans. 1739–40 (Royal Soc.) 41 343 A Sun-fish weighing about 500 Pound Weight.
1804 G. Shaw Gen. Zool. V. ii. 439 Oblong Sun-Fish... Variegated Sun-Fish.
1839 T. Beale Nat. Hist. Sperm Whale 212 The ugly sun-fish now and then came floating by.
1931 E. G. Boulenger Fishes xix. 156 The marine Sunfishes or Head-fishes (Molidæ) have the circular body abbreviated behind, so that the caudal, dorsal and anal fins appear to be attached to the head.
1988 Jrnl. Mammalogy 69 630 The [killer] whale held a struggling sunfish in its jaws and was biting it.
2016 Sc. Daily Mail (Nexis) 7 July 66 The sunfish (Mola mola) is one of the strangest animals in the ocean.
b. Chiefly U.S. Any of various small ray-finned freshwater fishes of the family Centrarchidae, esp. of the genera Lepomis and Acantharchus, found in slow moving bodies of water in North America where it is popular as a game fish. Also with distinguishing word. Cf. sunny n.bluegill sunfish, green sunfish, mud sunfish, red-eared sunfish, redear sunfish, spotted sunfish: see the first element.Certain species of sunfish are also called bass, bluegill, bream, crappie, and pumpkin seed (frequently with distinguishing word).
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the world > animals > fish > superorder Acanthopterygii (spiny fins) > order Perciformes (perches) > family Centrarchidae (sun-fish) > [noun] > member of genus Lepomis (sun-fish)
bream1634
roach1637
sunfish1685
round robin1709
yellowbelly1775
redbelly1791
brim1795
sun perch1804
pumpkin seed1815
sunny1835
bluegill1877
redbreast1877
tobacco-box1877
red-eared sunfish1889
shell-cracker1889
sun1896
redear1931
the world > animals > fish > superorder Acanthopterygii (spiny fins) > order Perciformes (perches) > family Centrarchidae (sun-fish) > [noun] > member of genus Pomotis
sunfish1685
sun perch1804
sunny1835
mud bass1884
sun1896
1685 W. Penn Further Acct. Pennsylvania 9 There is the Catfish, or Flathead..Perch, black and white, Smelt, Sunfish, &c.
1791 W. Bartram Trav. N. & S. Carolina 176 The golden bream or sun-fish, the red bellied bream..also abound here.
1796 J. Morse Amer. Universal Geogr. (new ed.) I. 482 There are few fish in the rivers, but..in the lakes, yellow-perch, sun-fish, salmon-trout, cat-fish, and a variety of others.
1842 Nat. Hist. N.Y., Zool. iv. 31 The Common Pond Fish. Pomotis vulgaris... This beautiful little fish has derived one of its popular names viz. Sun-fish, from the glittering colors it displays while basking in the sun.
1867 Rep. Commissioner Agric. 1866 409 Few or no fishes are so familiar to all..as are the species which are most commonly known under the various names of sun-fishes, rock-bass,..&c., and which belong to the family of Centrarchidæ.
1888 G. B. Goode Amer. Fishes 67 The Blue Sun-fish, Lepomis pallidus, is also known as the ‘Blue Bream’.
1914 Brainerd (Minnesota) Daily Disp. 25 Sept. 5/4 Mrs. Frank was contentedly pulling out three inch sun fish. She had a little hook and was using angle worms for bait.
1960 H. S. Zim Guide to Everglades 40 Largemouth bass (a sunfish) is the region's gamest fresh-water fish.
1996 D. Sternberg & B. Ignizio Panfish 36/1 In murky waters, sunfish may nest as shallow as 6 inches.
2012 Oecologia 168 1113/2 Sunfish were added to the experimental wetlands 3 days prior to additions of crayfish.
c. Originally Irish English. The basking shark, Cetorhinus maximus.
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the world > animals > fish > subclass Elasmobranchii > order Pleurotremata > [noun] > member of family Cetorhinidae (basking shark)
fish-mariner1605
sail-fish1605
pricker1701
sunfish1734
basking-shark1769
bone shark1802
hoe-mother1805
1734 E. Lee Statute-law of Irel. Common-placed 194 Four Lamps to be on every Bridge in Dublin, and Oil of Sunfish may be used in all Places.
1746 C. Smith Antient & Present State Waterford xi. 271 This coast is pretty much frequented by Porpoises, Sun-fish, Seals, &c.
1797 Encycl. Brit. XVII. 714/2 Squalus... The maximus, basking shark, or the sun-fish of the Irish.
1847 Daily News (London) 23 July 3/6 As to the remunerative employment likely to be afforded in the capture of the sun-fish, or basking shark, Mr. Andrews states that they appear off the coast from April to June, from Achill Head..to Skelly's Rocks.
1886 Encycl. Brit. XXI. 777/2 The Basking Shark (Selache maxima), sometimes erroneously called ‘Sun-Fish’..may be seen in calm weather..motionless, with the upper part of the back raised above the surface of the water.
1925 Country Life 19 Sept. 447/1 I have since been told by nautical friends that the monster was probably a sun-fish.
1988 Irish Times 7 May a5/2 A British campaign to ‘save’ the basking shark—the ‘sunfish’ of Achill and Aran.
2016 M. Brockenbrough Shark Week iii. 51/1 Also called sunfish and sailfish, basking sharks have absolutely enormous mouths.
d. Chiefly U.S. regional. Either of two carangid fishes of the genus Selene, the lookdown ( S. vomer) and the Atlantic moonfish ( S. setapinnis). Now rare.
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the world > animals > fish > superorder Acanthopterygii (spiny fins) > order Perciformes (perches) > suborder Scombroidei (mackerel) > [noun] > family Carangidae (scads) > member of genus Selene or Vomer (moon-fish)
moonfish1646
hogback1832
sunfish1877
lookdown1882
horse-fish1883
horse-head1884
1877 Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 208 Vomer setipinnis... Horse-fish. Sun-fish... Selene argentea... Moon-fish. Sun-fish... The fishermen of the locality recognize no specific differences, calling them all either moon- or sun-fish.
1884 G. B. Goode in G. B. Goode et al. Fisheries U.S.: Sect. I 322 Selene setipinnis..known..in North Carolina as the ‘Moonfish’ or ‘Sunfish’.
1911 Fisheries U.S. 1908 (U.S. Dept. Commerce & Labor) 308/1 Blunt-nosed shiner (Selene vomer).—A familiar food fish found along the Atlantic coast from Florida to Cape Cod and in the Gulf of Mexico. It is known..in North Carolina as ‘moonfish’ or ‘sunfish’.
1983 J. S. Zaneveld Caribbean Fish Life 59 Vomer setapinnis..Atlantic moonfish, bluntnosed shiner, dollarfish;..horsefish; moonfish; pugnosed shiner, sunfish.
e. The opah, Lampris guttatus. Also called moonfish.
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the world > animals > fish > superorder Acanthopterygii (spiny fins) > [noun] > order Lampridiformes > member of family Lamprididae (opah)
moonfish1646
kingfish1653
opah1752
sea-pert1880
sunfish1880
1880 A. Günther Introd. Study of Fishes 454 The ‘Sun-fish’ (L. luna) is one of the most beautiful fishes of the Atlantic.
1884 Encycl. Brit. XVII. 777/1 Opah (Lampris luna)... From its habit of coming to the surface in calm weather, showing its high dorsal fin above the water, it has also received the name of ‘sun-fish’.
1899 Fishing Gaz. 262/2 Imagine my surprise and delight to find that the so-called sun fish was a magnificent specimen of the much wanted opah.
1929 Calif. Fisheries 9 Apr. 19/2 This particular Sunfish strayed into a net and was brought in to the Mutual Fish Company.
1980 W. Root Food 169/1 The fish called the Jerusalem haddock in Africa is not a haddock, but the opah, the sunfish or the kingfish (the last two names are shared with several others), Lampris regius.
2015 Lynn News (Nexis) 7 Jan. It's an Opah fish (Lampris guttatus), also known as a Sun fish or Moon fish, an extremely rare find.
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the world > animals > invertebrates > subkingdom Metazoa > grade Triploblastica or Coelomata > phylum Echinodermata > [noun] > subphylum Eleutherozoa > class Asteroidea > order Spinulosa > genus Solaster > member of
sunfish1681
sun star1841
sun starfish1850
1681 N. Grew Musæum Regalis Societatis i. v. iv. 124 A Star-Fish with Twelve Rays; by some called Sun-Fish.
1855 Fraser's Mag. May 547/1 The next day the ‘sun-fish’ itself died, and was removed to prevent injury to the water from its rapid decomposition.
1860 M. P. Merrifield Sketch Nat. Hist. Brighton v. 58 Solaster papposa, sometimes called the Sun-fish, whose numerous rays cause it to resemble a sun rather than a star.
1880 J. H. Wythe Sci. of Life xii. 185 The many-rayed Solaster, or Sun-fish.
3. U.S. In a rodeo: a manner of bucking in which the horse or steer twists its body into a crescent shape at the top of its jump. Cf. sunfish v.
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the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > family Equidae (general equines) > habits and actions of horse > [noun] > leap > buck
buck-jump1861
bucka1877
sunfish1903
1903 Wide World Mag. Mar. 548/1 A broncho named ‘E.A.’..used a combination of ‘sun-fish’ and ‘twister’.
1939 P. A. Rollins Gone Haywire 260 One prodigious forward jump, then a ‘sunfish’, and the beast raced into a ‘circle buck’.
1998 M. Allen Rodeo Cowboys in N. Amer. Imagination iv. 113 The bronc is in a classic sunfish pose, his body contorted into the shape of a crescent as he strains (and fails) to throw the cowboy.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, January 2018; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
sunfishv.
/ˈsʌnfɪʃ/, U.S. /ˈsənˌfɪʃ/ Originally and chiefly U.S.
intransitive. Of a horse or steer: to buck violently with a twisting motion, esp. by twisting its body into a crescent shape at the top of its jump. Also in extended use.
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the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > family Equidae (general equines) > habits and actions of horse > [verb (intransitive)] > leap or prance > buck
buck1848
sunfish1888
the world > movement > motion in a certain direction > upward movement > leaping, springing, or jumping > leap, spring, or jump [verb (intransitive)] > somersault
tumbc1000
tumble1303
to top over tail1545
somerset1599
pitch-pole1682
topple1802
somersault1858
sunfish1923
1888 T. Roosevelt in Cent. Mag. Apr. 854/2 He may buck steadily in one place, or ‘sunfish’,—that is, bring first one shoulder down almost to the ground and then the other.
1923 Cent. Mag. 106 831/2 Down across Texas it went sunfishin', back-flippin', side-windin'... The Staked Plains used to be heavily timbered until that big wind swiped the trees off.
1971 A. P. McInnes Dunlevy 86 Sometimes the mare sunfished, but the girl stuck solidly.
1979 D. Anthony Long Hard Cure xxv. 195 He'd ducked..and gone to one knee, sunfishing a little. His right arm moved..and his pistol boomed loud.
2002 D. Y. Goble Provin' Up vi. 83 For about ten minutes the bronco sunfished and bucked.
Derivatives
ˈsunfisher n. a horse or steer that sunfishes.
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the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > family Equidae (general equines) > habits and actions of horse > [noun] > leap > buck > horse given to
buck-jumper1848
bucker1884
sunfisher1903
1903 Outing Dec. 335/2 If the forelegs of the ‘sunfisher’ curl under him as he rises, he gives his rider little uneasiness.
1924 W. M. Raine Troubled Waters v. 47 Rocking chair [sc. an outlaw horse]..was a noted fence rower, weaver, and sunfisher.
2005 Edmonton (Alberta) Jrnl. (Nexis) 10 Nov. a1 Riding sunfishers and head hunters in order to scrape up enough money for a new truck.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, January 2018; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.a1630
v.1888