thimble-eyen.
/ˈθɪmb(ə)lʌɪ/ 1. Nautical. See quots. 1867, 1877.
ΚΠ
1867 W. H. Smyth & E. Belcher Sailor's Word-bk. Thimble-eyes, are thimble-shaped apertures in iron-plates where sheaves are not required; frequently used instead of dead-eyes for the top-mast-rigging, futtock-plates, and backstays in the channels.
1877 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. Thimble-eye,..an eye in a plate through which a rope is rove without a sheave. A dead-eye.
2. A fish, the Chub Mackerel, Scomber colias. Cf. earlier thimble-eyed adj. at Derivatives.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > fish > superorder Acanthopterygii (spiny fins) > order Perciformes (perches) > suborder Scombroidei (mackerel) > [noun] > family Scombridae > genus Scomber > member of (mackerel)
mackerelc1300
yellowtaila1622
Scomber1623
tinker1848
Spanish mackerel1880
Monterey mackerel1884
thimble-eye1888
1888 G. B. Goode Amer. Fishes 196 The only other spotted fish which has been known to frequent our coast is the ‘chub mackerel’ or ‘thimble eye’.
Derivatives
thimble-eyed adj. having eyes like thimbles, as this fish.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > fish > superorder Acanthopterygii (spiny fins) > order Perciformes (perches) > suborder Scombroidei (mackerel) > [adjective] > having eyes like thimbles
thimble-eyed1815
1815 Trans. Lit. & Philos. Soc. N.Y. 1 422 Thimble eyed, bull eyed, or chub mackerel..comes occasionally in prodigious numbers to the coast of New-York in autumn.
1891 Cent. Dict. Thimble-eyed,..used of the chub-mackerel.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1912; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1815