Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of various rays having spines on the back, especially Raja clavata, found in coastal waters of the eastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A kind of ray or skate, Raia clavata, common on the British coasts, distinguished by the short and strong spines which are scattered over the back and tail.
- noun The common British spider-crab, Maia squinado. Sometimes called
king-crab . See cut underMaia . - noun In Australia, one of the sting-rays, Raja lemprieri or Raja rostata, of the family Rajidæ.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) A European skate (
Raia clavata ) having thornlike spines on its back. - noun (Zoöl.) The large European spider crab or king crab (
Maia squinado ).
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The thornback guitarfish (Platyrhinoidis triseriata), a species of
ray in the north-eastern Pacific Ocean. - noun The thornback ray or thornback skate (Raja clavata), a species of
ray in the Atlantic Ocean. - noun The thornback skate (Dentiraja lemprieri), a
fish endemic toAustralia .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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This gulf abounds with delicious fish; as the _sarde_ (pilchard) red fish, cod, sturgeon, ringed thornback, and many other sorts, the best in their kind.
History of Louisisana Or of the Western Parts of Virginia and Carolina: Containing -1775 Le Page du Pratz
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So also our fishing would be advanced and improved highly by encouraging many poor men to follow that calling, and sundry sorts which are now slighted would be fit for a town market, as sturgeon, thornback, and catfish.
The Bounty of the Chesapeake Fishing in Colonial Virginia James Wharton
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"Looked as much like a giant thornback as anything I ever saw," remarked
The Cruise of the Nonsuch Buccaneer Harry Collingwood 1886
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Hence it may be seen that though there was not in Boston the "glorious phalanx of old maids" of Theodore Parker's description, yet the Boston old maid was lovely even in colonial days, though she did bear the odious name of thornback.
Customs and Fashions in Old New England Alice Morse Earle 1881
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"Antient maides" were held in little esteem by him; not one thornback is on his list.
Customs and Fashions in Old New England Alice Morse Earle 1881
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It is these purses, and those of the thornback and the edible skate, that we oftenest pick up on the English coast.
Science in Arcady Grant Allen 1873
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The great ugly sharky fish was hooked forward by Josh and placed in a great basket, where it lay writhing its eely tail, and flapping its wing-like fins as the boat slowly progressed, and bait after bait was replaced, many being untouched, the thornback, skate, or ray being the only fish taken.
Menhardoc George Manville Fenn 1870
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Through the glass, high above his head, and not far from the surface, he saw a huge thornback, bending toward them and seeming to look down on them, as it flew slowly through the water -- the action of the two sides of its body fringed with fins, and its consequent motion, were much more like the act of flying than that of swimming.
Weighed and Wanting George MacDonald 1864
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The boy gave a curious half-sad smile, without turning his eyes from the thornback, and said nothing.
Weighed and Wanting George MacDonald 1864
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These include perch; bream; the john-dory; carp; barbel; salmon; pike; trout; sturgeon; the shark; thornback; lamprey; turbot; plaice; sole; flounder; cod; haddock; &c. INSECTS AND SHELLS.
How to See the British Museum in Four Visits W. Blanchard Jerrold 1855
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