▪ I. loach
(ləʊtʃ)
Forms: 5 looche, 5–7 loch, 5–9 loche, 6– loach.
[a. F. loche (13th c.), loach, also dial. slug; cf. mod. Norman loque loach, slug (Moisy). Sp. loja is from Fr.]
1. A small European fish, Cobitis (Nemachilus) barbatula (-us), inhabiting small clear streams and highly prized for food; also, any fish of the family Cobitidæ. spinous loach, Cobitis tænia.
| 1357 [see 4]. 14.. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 585/18 Fundulus, a looche. 14.. Nom. ibid. 705/1 Hec alosa, a loch. c 1420 Liber Cocorum (1862) 54 And smalle fysshe thou take..sperlynges and menwus withal And loches. 1558 Act 1 Eliz. c. 17 §4 Places where Smeltes, Loches, Mynneis.. hathe been used to bee taken. c 1560 A. Scott Poems (S.T.S.) ii. 108 Thair wes nowdir lad nor loun Mycht eit ane baikin loche Ffor fowness. 1651–7 T. Barker Art of Angling (1820) 31 Bait your hooks with millers thumbes, loaches. 1653 Walton Angler viii. 161 Carps and Loches are observed to breed several months in one year. 1789 G. White Selborne xviii, The loach in its general aspect has a pellucid appearance. 1819 Crabbe T. of Hall xiii. 6 Where in the shallow stream the loaches play. 1837 M. Donovan Dom. Econ. II. 33 That ugly little fish the loche. 1869 Blackmore Lorna D. vii. (ed. 12) 38 A jar of pickled loaches. 1882 J. Walker Jaunt to Auld Reekie 118 The Coachman, sluggish as a bearded loach. |
2. Applied to fishes of other genera. a. The burbot or eel-pout. (In recent U.S. Dicts.) b. sea-loach, the whistle-fish.
| a 1672 Willughby Ichthyogr. (1686) 121 Mustela vulgaris,..A Sea Loche Cestriæ. Whistle-fish in Cornubia. [So 1769 Pennant Brit. Zool. III. 164.] |
† 3. fig. A simpleton. Obs.
| 1605 Tryall Chev. iii. i. in Bullen O. Pl. III. 303 The Loach gets me into a Sutlers bath and there sits me drinking for Joanes best cap. c 1620 Peele's Jests 17 This Loach spares not for any expence. |
4. attrib. and Comb.
| 1357 Act 31 Edw. III, Stat. iii. c. 2 Le pesson de Doggerefissh & lochefissh. 1587 L. Mascall Govt. Cattle, Oxen (1596) 43 Some do take a loch fish quick, and put it down the beasts throat. 1869 Blackmore Lorna D. xv. (ed. 12) 90 Was not I a lout gone by, only fit for loach-sticking? 1883 Fisheries Exhib. Catal. 254 Loach Traps,..Loach Hook and Rod. |
▪ II. loach
see lohoch.