thornback
(ˈθɔːnbæk)
Forms: see thorn n. and back n.1; also 5 -bagge, 7 -bage, -bagg.
1. The common ray or skate (Raia clavata) of British seas, used as food, distinguished by having several rows of short sharp spines arranged along the back and tail. Also called † thorny-back (obs.).
| c 1300 Havelok 759 Þe Butte, þe schulle, þe þornebake. Ibid. 832. 1392 Earl Derby's Exp. (Camden) 155 Pro vj thornebakkes, iiij d. c 1440 Anc. Cookery in Househ. Ord. (1790) 469 A codlynge or whitynge, or thornbagge, or hadok. 1594 Nashe Unfort. Trav. 16 My cape cloake..ouer-spreading my backe like a thorne-backe. 1605 Shuttleworths' Acc. (Chetham Soc.) 170 One thornbage and fyve flokes vj{supd}. 1653 H. Cogan tr. Pinto's Trav. xxiv. (1663) 89 We saw Fishes in the Shape of Thornbacks, that were four fathoms about, and had a Muzzle like an Ox. 1859 Yarrell's Brit. Fishes II. 582 The Thornback and its female the Maid. 1861 Hulme tr. Moquin-Tandon ii. iii. i. 106 The Thorn⁓back.., from the shores of the Mediterranean, is of a brown colour, spotted with white and black. The body attains a length of twelve feet. |
b. As the name of other species of ray: see quots.
| 1731 Medley Kolben's Cape G. Hope II. 202 The Cape Thornback is a broad flat fish from three quarters of an inch to an inch thick. 1898 Morris Austral Eng., Thornback, Name for one of the Stingrays, Raia lemprieri, Richards. |
† c. fig. Opprobriously applied to a person.
| 1599 Nashe Lenten Stuffe (1871) 101 To be held a flat thornback, or sharp pricking dog-fish to the public weal. |
2. a. Short for thornback crab: see 4.
| 1891 in Cent. Dict. |
b. Provincial name of the stickleback.
| 1859 Yarrell's Brit. Fishes (ed. 3) II. 75 Rough-tailed Stickleback. Pinkeen..Thornback. c 1904 E. Smith (MS.) Warwick. Gloss. (E.D.D.), Thorn-back, a small fish with a strong back fin. It abounds in the Avon, but it is not the stickleback. |
† 3. An old maid. slang. Obs.
The female young of the thornback is called maid (maid n.1 7), and maiden-skate (Sc.).
| 1694 Motteux Rabelais v. iv, Whether when they were Maids, or Thornbacks, in their Prime, or at their last Prayers. 1709 Brit. Apollo II. No. 70. 2/2 Meeting with three Thornbacks.., I treated them. 1898 Daily News 14 Mar. 4/7 After 25, young ladies were called ‘thorn-backs’ by the much marrying Puritans of New England. |
4. attrib., as thornback crab, a species of spider-crab or sea-spider, Maia squinado, called also in U.S. king-crab; † thornback dog, a kind of dog-fish or shark of the genus Galeus; thornback ray = sense 1; thornback skate (see quot.).
| 1668 Wilkins Real Char. ii. v. §3. 132 Thornback Dog, [margin] Galeus spinax. 1862 Couch Brit. Fishes I. 99 Thornback Ray, Ray-maid... This is one of the commonest of the Rays, and the most valued. 1875 Melbourne Spectator 28 Aug. 201/3 A thornback skate [Raia rostrata],..weighing 109 lbs., has been caught..at North Arm. |
Hence † ˈthornbackly a. Obs., of the nature of a thornback: cf. 1 c above.
| 1605 Tryall Chev. v. ii. in Bullen Old Pl. (1884) III. 350 The Thornbackly slave! |