trunk-fishn.
/ˈtrʌŋkfɪʃ/, U.S. /ˈtrəŋkˌfɪʃ/ Any fish of the genus Ostracion or family Ostraciontidæ, inhabiting tropical seas, and having the body of angular cross-section and covered with bony hexagonal plates; a coffer-fish.
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the world > animals > fish > superorder Acanthopterygii (spiny fins) > order Perciformes (perches) > order Tetraodontiformes (puffers) > [noun] > family Ostraciontidae (trunk-fish) > member of genus Ostracion
ostracion1658
boxfish1798
trunk-fish1804
cow-fish1870
coffer-fish1884
1804 G. Shaw Gen. Zool. V. 420 Triquetral Trunk-fish.
1835 Encycl. Brit. XII. 229/2 The horned trunk-fish, Ostracion cornutus, a native, like most of the genus, of the Indian and American seas.
1851 P. H. Gosse Nat. Hist.: Fishes 288 The Trunk-fishes..have the body angular, four or three-sided, covered with angular plates of solid bone soldered together, and forming a sort of inflexible box, with openings for the mouth, the fins, the tail, and the gill-aperture.
1876 G. B. Goode Catal. Fishes Bermudas 23 The locomotion of the trunk~fishes is very peculiar.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2022).
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n.1804