grayling
(ˈgreɪlɪŋ)
Also 5 gra-, gray-, grelyng(e, grayllyng(h)e, 6–7 grailing, 7–8 greyling, 8 gragling.
[f. gray, grey a.: see -ling.]
1. A freshwater fish of the genus Thymallus (family Salmonidæ), of a silvery-grey colour and characterized by a long and high dorsal fin.
The common European grayling is Thymallus vulgaris; other species are T. signifer, the American or Alaskan grayling, and T. ontariensis, the Michigan grayling.
| a 1450 Fysshynge w. angle (1883) 15 Ye schall angle..For þe trowyt the grelyng and þe barbel..with a lyne of ix herys. Ibid. 17 A dubbed hooke for the troute & gralyng. a 1490 Botoner Itin. (1778) 358 Yn Wye water sunt pisces, trouthes, cullys, loches, anguillæ, grayllynghes. 1496 Bk. St. Albans, Fishing h 6 b, The grayllynge by a nother name callyd vmbre is a delycyous fysshe to mannys mouthe. 1577–87 Harrison England i. xiv. in Holinshed (1807) I. 123 In this riuer [Wie] be vmbers, otherwise called grailings. a 1672 Willughby Icthyogr. (1686) Tab. N 8, A Greyling or Omer. 1787 Best Angling 39 The Gragling, Grayling or Umber. This fish has three different names given it, according to the different parts of England where it is found. 1855 Tennyson Brook 58 And here and there a lusty trout, And here and there a grayling. 1867 F. Francis Angling viii. (1880) 294 If the trout be the gentleman of the streams, the grayling is certainly the lady. 1873 G. C. Davies Mount. & Mere xi. 89 The tender-mouthed grayling. 1882 Michigan & its Resources 29 Brook trout and grayling are plenty in some of the small rivers of the northern counties. |
b. An Australian fish, Prototroctes maræna, closely resembling the English grayling.
| 1880 W. Senior Travel & Trout 94 The cucumber mullet..I have long expected to be a grayling. 1882 J. E. Tenison-Woods Fish of N. S. Wales 109 (Morris) The Australian grayling, which in character..is almost identical with the English fish of that name. 1889 Cassell's Picturesque Austral. (1890) IV. 206 The river abounds in the delicious grayling or cucumber fish. |
c. (See quot.)
| 1889 ‘John Bickerdyke’ Bk. All-round Angler iii. 95 note, In parts of Ireland grilse are termed grayling, and in the markets of the Midlands pollan..is sold as Irish grayling. |
2. A common butterfly (Hipparchia Semele), so called from the grey under-side of the wings.
| 1819 G. Samouelle Entomol. Compend. 241 Hipparchia Semele (grayling, or rock underwing). 1841 Westwood Brit. Butterflies 68. 1893 Morris Brit. Butterflies 51. 1893 Daily News 1 Feb. 8/2 The grayling. This quiet coloured butterfly is a native of stony hill sides. |
3. attrib. and Comb., as grayling-angler, grayling-fishing, grayling-fly; grayling sky, a sky of a silvery-grey colour.
| 1894 H. Nisbet Bush Girl's Rom. 6 The motionless figure as it lies under that grayling sky. 1889 ‘John Bickerdyke’ Bk. All-round Angler iii. 97 The best Test grayling-flies. 1898 Speaker 29 Oct. 515/2 Your grayling angler casts it [his fly] in very different fashion. |