▪ I. coral, n.1
(ˈkɒrəl)
Forms: 4– coral; also 4–8 -ale, 5–7 -all(e, 6–7 corral(l, 6–8 -ell, 5 cural(l)e, 6 curroll, 6–7 -all, 7 -el, -ell, (5 quyral).
[a. OF. coral, coural (12th c. in Littré), later corail = Pr. coralh, Sp. coral, It. corallo:—L. corallum, corā̆lium, a. Gr. κοράλλιον red coral.]
1. A hard calcareous substance consisting of the continuous skeleton secreted by many tribes of marine cœlenterate polyps for their support and habitation. Found, according to the habits of the species, in single specimens growing plant-like on the sea-bottom, or in extensive accumulations, sometimes many miles in extent, called coral reefs. a. Historically, and in earlier literature and folk-lore, the name belongs to the beautiful red coral, an arborescent species, found in the Red Sea and Mediterranean, prized from times of antiquity for ornamental purposes, and often classed among precious stones. pink coral: a pale variety of this.
| c 1305 Land Cokayne 70 Of grene Jaspe and red corale. c 1386 Chaucer Prol. 158 Of smal coral aboute hire arm she bar A peire of bedes gauded al with grene. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvi. xxxii. (1495) 563 Corall is gendred in the red see and is a tree aslonge as it is coueryd with water, but anone as it is drawen out it torneth in to stone. 1483 Cath. Angl. 86 Curalle, corallus. 1535 Coverdale Lam. iv. 7 Their colour was fresh read as the Corall, their beutie like the Saphyre. 1584 R. W. Three Ladies Lond. in Hazl. Dodsley VI. 276 Coral will look pale when you be sick. c 1600 Shakes. Sonn. cxxx, Currall is farre more red then her lips red. 1631 E. Jorden Nat. Bathes v. (1669) 34 Coral also being a Plant, and nourished with this juice, turns to a stone. 1665 Phil. Trans. I. 116 Whole Forrests of Coral at the bottom of the Red Sea. 1789 Mrs. Piozzi France & It. I. 258 The coral here is such as can be seen nowhere else. 1861 Hulme tr. Moquin-Tandon ii. iii. ii. 87 Red Coral..is found attached to rocks at the bottom of the sea..Coral was for a long time regarded as a marine plant. |
b. Afterwards extended to other kinds; at first named from their colour, as
white coral, originally applied to Madrepore,
black coral (
Antipathes),
blue coral (
Heliospora),
yellow coral, etc. In more recent times, many kinds have been named from the appearance of the aggregate skeleton, as
brain c. (
Meandrina),
cup c. (family Cyathophyllidæ),
mushroom c. (
Fungia),
organ-pipe c. (
Tubipora),
star c. (
Astroides), etc. See also
madrepore,
millepore.
| a 1600 Customs Duties (Add. MS. 25097), Currall, white or red. 1624 Capt. Smith Virginia i. 3 She had..about her forehead a band of white Corrall. 1693 Sir T. P. Blount Nat. Hist. 23 There are several sorts of Coral, but the two Principal are the White and the Red; but the Red is the best..There is also a Black and Yellow kind of Coral. 1695 Woodward Nat. Hist. Earth iv. (1723) 196 The several Sorts of Mineral Corall. 1732 T. Lediard Sethos II. vii. 75 White and red coral, and of a sort of blue coral called Acoris. 1841 Emerson Addr., Meth. Nat. Wks. (Bohn) II. 224 Nature turns off new firmaments..as fast as the madrepores make coral. 1847 Carpenter Zool. §1073 In the Meandrina cerebriformis (brain-stone coral), the whole mass..is nearly hemispherical. Ibid. §1097 Tubipora musica..from the regular arrangement of its cylindrical tubes by each other's side..is commonly termed Organ-pipe Coral. 1861 Hulme tr. Moquin-Tandon ii. iii. ii. 87 The Black Coral is distinguished from the Red by the horny nature of the stem, and by its flexibility and smoothness. White Coral differs still more. The axis is stony or calcareous; but the polyps are contained in lamellated star-like cavities, and not in the fleshy cortical substance. |
2. (with
a and
pl.)
a. A particular species of the preceding, or of the colonial zoophyte of which it is the skeleton; also, a single polypary or polypidom in its natural condition (
= corallum).
The coralligenous zoophytes belong to the two classes Anthozoa (or Actinozoa) and Hydrozoa of the
Cœlenterata (
q.v.). Both these classes contain families of compound, aggregate, or colonial zoophytes, secreting a continuous calcareous skeleton, which goes on growing by the constant development of new polyps or individual animals, each, like the bud of a plant, springing from and connected with the common stock. The Anthozoa are usually subdivided into two sub-classes, Alcyonaria (
= Octactiniæ), to the colonial families of which belong the Red, Blue, and Organ-pipe corals; and Zoantharia (
= Hexacoralla), of which the division Antipatharia contains Black coral, and Madreporaria the Madrepores, Brain-corals, Mushroom-corals, Star-corals, etc., the chief reef-building corals. To the class Hydrozoa belong the
Millepores, which are only distantly related to the other coralligenous animals, though their calcareous skeletons also form extensive reefs.
| 1579 T. Stevens in Hakluyt Voy. (1589) 161 One of them pulled vp a currall of great bignesse and price. The currals does grow in the manner of stalkes vpon the rockes on the bottome, and waxe hard and red. 1712 tr. Pomet's Hist. Drugs I. 97 Of all the Corals the Red is most in use. 1751 Chambers Cycl. s.v., There is a kind of white coral [Madrepore] pierced full of holes, and a black coral named antipates. 1860 Gosse Rom. Nat. Hist. 90 Living corals exist and build compound polypidoms at far greater depths in our northern latitudes. 1887 Spectator 7 May 614/2 Nature when she builds an island out of corals. 1888 Rolleston & Jackson Anim. Life 739 The calycles are in the majority of colonial corals connected by a calcareous cœnenchyma. |
b. A piece of (red) coral, as an ornament, etc.
| 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1673) 164 ælianus saith, that there was an Elephant in Egypt, which was in love with a woman that sold Corrals. 1705 W. Bosman Guinea 24 One of his Wives had a new Fashion'd Coral on. 1841 Elphinstone Hist. Ind. I. 543 Various jewels, including pearls, corals, diamonds, and rubies. |
3. A toy made of polished coral, given to infants to assist them in cutting their teeth. The name has been extended to toys of glass, bone, etc. used for the same purpose.
| 1613 Beaum. & Fl. Captain iii. v, Art thou not breeding teeth..I'll..get a coral for thee. 1642 Milton Apol. Smect. (1851) 293 Some sucking Satir, who might have done better to have us'd his corall. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 1 ¶2, I..would not make use of my Coral till they had taken away the Bells from it. 1750 Johnson Rambler No. 82 ¶2 Of all the toys with which children are delighted, I valued only my coral. 1840 Hood Kilmansegg, Childhood, Cutting her first little toothy-peg With a fifty guinea coral. |
| fig. 1856 Mrs. Browning Aur. Leigh i. 3 Which things are corals to cut life upon. |
4. In various
fig. senses:
† a. Applied to anything precious;
cf. jewel,
pearl.
b. Anything of bright red colour; blood, the lips, etc.
† c. Applied to Christ as a ‘tree of pearl’.
| a 1310 in Wright Lyric P. v. 25 Ase diamaunde the dere in day when he is dyht, He is coral y-cud with cayser ant knyht. 1595 Barnfield Sonn. xvii. 12 His teeth pure Pearle in blushing Correll set. 1632 J. Hayward tr. Biondi's Eromena 93 Her amorous feaver..caused the corals and roses fade away from her..face. a 1649 Drummond of Hawthornden Poems 33 Where she stood, Blood's liquid coral sprang her feet beneath. 1649 J. Ellistone tr. Behmen's Epist. i. ii, It is meer joy unto me to perceive that our Paradisicall Corall flourisheth, and bringeth forth fruit in my fellow-members. 1696 Lond. Gaz. No. 3207/4 Having..a small Wart on the Corral of the Upper Lip. 1875 Lowell Poet. Wks. (1879) 464 His barefoot soldiers..Tramping the snow to coral where they trod. |
5. transf. a. The unimpregnated roe or eggs of the lobster; so called from the colour when boiled.
| 1768 Travis in Penny Cycl. II. 513/2 That black substance..when boiled, turns of a beautiful red colour, and is called their [lobsters'] coral. 1805 Mrs. S. Martin Eng. Housekeeper (ed. 3) 121 Take a good lobster and pick out all the meat; lay the berries, or coral, by themselves. 1844 J. T. J. Hewlett Parsons & W. iii, Two fine lobsters, one full of coral, and the other of berries. 1880 Huxley Crayfish 31. |
b. In the names of plants, as
garden coral.
| 1882 Syd. Soc. Lex., Garden coral, the Capsicum annuum. |
6. Short for
coral-snake.
| [1784 Univ. Mag. 121 Among the Serpents, there are none so venemous..nor more common in this Isthmus [Darien] than the Corales.] 1852 Th. Ross Humboldt's Trav. I. iv. 152 The Cascabel, or rattle-snake, the Coral, and other vipers..frequent these..arid haunts. |
7. attrib. (or
adj.)
a. Made or composed of (red) coral as a material.
| 1452 Will of J. Barker (Somerset Ho.), Quyral bedis. 1524 Test. Ebor. (Surtees) V. 179, ij. pair of currall bedes. a 1593 Marlowe ‘Come live with me’, Coral clasps and amber studs. 1883 G. Lloyd Ebb & Flow II. 151 She wore that pink coral set. |
b. Coral-like, of the colour of red coral.
| 1513 Douglas æneis xii. Prol. 155 Phebus red fowle hys corall creist can steyr. 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. i. i. 179, I saw her corrall lips to moue. 1633 Costlie Whore ii. i. in Bullen O. Pl. IV, I loathe to looke upon a common lip, Were it as corrall as Aurora's cheeke. 1852 Beck's Florist 257 The Fuchsia..a brilliant coral tube and sepals, with corolla of intense violet. |
c. Naturally consisting or formed of coral in the mass.
| 1612 Drayton Polyolb. Wks. 1753 III. 846 Amongst the coral-groves in the Verginian deep. 1713 Young Last Day i. 302 Thro' coral groves, Thro' labyrinths of rocks. 1790 Beatson Nav. & Mil. Mem. I. 59 Having nearly reached her destination, she, through the ignorance of the pilot, run against a coral rock. 1819 Heber Hymn, From Greenland's icy mountains, From India's coral strand. 1845 Darwin Voy. Nat. xx. (1852) 480 Some of the..encircled islands are composed of coral-rock. |
8. General combinations:
a. objective, as
coral-fishing,
coral-making,
coral-secreting;
b. instrumental, as
coral-bound,
coral-built,
coral-cinctured,
coral-girt,
coral-paven;
c. similative, as
coral-red;
d. parasynthetic, as
coral-beaded,
coral-berried,
coral-buttoned,
coral-rooted,
coral-stamened.
| 1883 Gd. Words 113 Gorgeous articles of native dress..*coral-beaded. |
| 1897 Daily News 9 Sept. 6/1 The drooping boughs of *coral-berried rowan. 1937 Blunden Elegy 54 Some coral-berried tree. |
| 1872 Dana Corals ii. 129 A *coral-bound coast. |
| 1884 J. Colborne With Hicks Pasha 259 The white, *coral-built town of Suakin lay like a pearl before me. |
| 1848 Clough Bothie i. 41 Waistcoat blue, *coral-buttoned. |
| 1785 T. Warton Poems 55 (Jod.) My *coral-cinctur'd stole. |
| 1872 Dana Corals ii. 130 *Coral-girt islands. |
| 1634 Milton Comus 883 Heave thy rosy head From thy *coral-paven bed. |
| 1700 Dryden Cock & Fox 49 High was his comb, and *coral-red withal. 1882 Garden 8 July 17/1 Handsome bold buds of intense coral-red. |
| 1776 Withering Brit. Plants (1796) II. 33 *Coralrooted Twayblade. |
| 1846 Dana Zooph. ii. §9 (1848) 15 The *coral-secreting polyps. |
| 1881 Mrs. Holman Hunt Childr. Jerus. 139 A branch of the yellow-tasselled *coral-stamened acacia. |
9. Special combinations:
coral bead plant,
Abrus precatorius, a native of India, bearing small scarlet egg-shaped seeds, used for necklaces and other ornamental purposes, also in India as a standard of weight;
coral-bean, the seed of the flowering shrub
Erythrina glauca, and of the bead- or necklace-tree,
Ormosia dasycarpa;
coral-berry, an American shrub (
Symphoricarpus vulgaris) allied to the Snowberry, but having the berries deep red (
Treas. Bot. 1866);
coral-creeper, a species of
Kennedya (
K. prostrata), a leguminous plant bearing large bright red or pink flowers;
coral-fern Austral., a name given to Australian ferns of the genus
Gleichenia;
coral-fish, a name for fishes of the families Chætodontidæ and Pomacentridæ which frequent coral-reefs;
coral-flower, the flower of
Erythrina: see
coral-tree;
coral-gall, an excrescence produced on coral by the action of epizoic animals,
esp. crabs and barnacles; also
attrib., of such an animal;
coral-grove, a dense mass of tree-like corals growing together;
coral-insect, a popular but erroneous name for a coral-polyp;
coral-island, an island of which the formation is due to the growth of coral;
coral-lacquer,
-lac, a red lacquer, forming a surface capable of being carved in low relief;
coral-limestone, coralline limestone;
coral-milk (see
quot.);
coral-mud, mud formed by decomposed coral;
coral-pea = coral-creeper;
coral-polyp, one of the individual animals of a coral polypidom, a coral-zoophyte;
coral-sand (
cf. coral-mud);
coral-serpent = coral-snake;
coral-shoemaker, a fish of the genus
Teuthis, found in the coral reefs of the Indian Ocean;
coral-spot, a disease of shrubs and trees caused by the fungus
Nectria cinnabarina; also, the fungus itself;
coral-stitch, a stitch used in embroidery, producing an irregular branched appearance like that of some kinds of coral;
coral-stone, limestone or marble composed of fossil corals;
coral-teeth = coral-root (Miller
Plant-names);
coral vine = corallita;
coral-worm = coral-polyp;
coral-zone (see
quot.);
coral-zoophyte = coral-polyp. See also
coral-plant, -rag, -reef, etc.
| 1860 Bartlett Dict. Americanisms, *Coral Berry, the Indian Currant of Missouri. |
| 1898 Morris Austral Eng. 98/1 *Coral-Fern, name given in Victoria to Gleichenia circinata. 1942 C. Barrett Austral. Wild Flower Bk. xi. 190 Coral ferns and fan ferns belong to the same genus, Gleichenia. 1968 G. R. Cochrane et al. Flowers & Plants of Victoria 171 Wiry rhachises of the Scrambling Coral Fern..branch repeatedly for several feet to form umbrella-like fronds with tiny flattened pinnules. A closely related species, Pouched Coral Fern or Wiry Coral Fern, has pouch-like pinnules. |
| 1880 Günther Fishes 525 The small Zoophytes covering the banks, round which these ‘*Coral-fishes’ abound. |
| 1777 G. Forster Voy. round World I. 263 A beautiful erythrina, or *coral-flower. |
| 1903 Nature 10 Sept. 457/1 These *coral galls may be found on the Milleporas and Madreporas of a certain portion of a reef and be absent from all the other genera of neighbouring corals. 1957 Encycl. Brit. VI. 627/1 Another small but intriguing species is the coral-gall crab (Hapalocarcinus), which in some fashion irritates the growing tips of certain corals so that they grow to enclose the female in a stony prison..which provides an enduring shelter. |
| 1845 Darwin Voy. Nat. xx. (1852) 461 These *coral-groves which..had attained the utmost possible limit of upward growth. |
| 1752 in Watson Phil. Trans. XLVII. 454 Upon the coasts of Barbary..he had the pleasure of seeing the *coral-insect move its claws or legs. |
| 1832 H. T. De la Beche Geol. Man. (ed. 2) 149 MM. Quoy and Gaimard..paid particular attention to the *coral islands and reefs. |
| 1831 Lyell Princ. Geol. II. 287 The increase of *coral limestone..may vary greatly according to the sites of mineral springs. 1839 G. A. Mantell Wond. Geol. (ed. 3) II. 563 In reference to the formation of coral limestones,..some beds..consist of a pure calcareous mud. 1878 Jrnl. Chem. Soc. XXXIV. 120 Formerly pyroclasite was supposed to be the result of volcanic action upon the coral-limestone. 1959 Chambers's Encycl. X. 302/2 Clipperton has no basalt but has trachyte and coral limestone. |
| 1841–71 T. R. Jones Anim. Kingd. 128 The nutritive fluids, after elaboration by the polyps..are conveyed into the larger deep-seated parallel tubes: the nutrient fluid contained in these tubes resembles milk so much that it is known by the name of *coral-milk. |
| 1878 Huxley Physiogr. xv. 254 The loose blocks are cemented into compact masses by means of coral-sand and *coral-mud. |
| 1896 Melburnian 28 Aug. 53 (Morris), The trailing scarlet kennedyas, aptly called the ‘bleeding-heart’ or ‘*coral pea’. 1962 Austral. Encycl. V. 175/2 K[ennedya] prostrata, the ‘running postman’, or scarlet coral-pea, is found in all States; it has clover-like leaves and single or twin showy flowers with yellow centres. |
| 1846 Dana Zooph. ii. (1848) 15 note, The animals of a coral zoophyte are coral-animals or *coral-polyps. |
| 1876 Page Adv. Text-bk. Geol. iii. 68 Formed entirely of coarse *coral-sand. |
| 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1790) VII. ix. 215 (Jod.) The *coral-serpent, which is red, and whose bite is said to be fatal. |
| 1923 Trans. Brit. Mycological Soc. VIII. 22 (heading) The parasitism of Nectria cinnabarina (*Coral Spot). 1966 F. H. Brightman Oxf. Bk. Flowerless Plants 144/2 Nectria cinnabarina (‘Coral Spot’) is common at all times of the year on moist, newly fallen twigs and branches. |
| 1873 Young Englishwoman Jan. 46/2 Work the veins in *coral-stitch and hem-stitch. |
| 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1673) 152 It is like to..the Marble called Lapis Coraliticus, *Coral stone. 1876 Page Adv. Text-Bk. Geol. xx. 426 The ‘coral-stone’ has a sparry crystalline aspect. |
| 1931 T. W. Sanders Encycl. Gardening (ed. 21) 28 Antigonon (*Coral Vine; Corallita)..Tuberous-rooted stove climbers..Species cultivated: A. leptopus, bright pink, summer, 10 to 15 ft., Mexico. |
| 1840 Clough Dipsychus ii. iv. 140 But I must slave, a meagre *coral-worm. |
| 1865 Page Handbk. Geol. Terms s.v., In marine geology, the *coral zone..is the region of the calcareous and stronger corals, and extends from 300 to 600 feet. |
| 1874 Dawkins Cave-hunt. ii. 71 In the tissues of the *coral-zoophytes it assumes the form of stony groves. |
▪ II. † coral, n.2 Obs. [a. OF. curail ‘balle du blé’ (Godef.), chaff.] Chaff of corn.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 92 Coralle, or drasse of corne [K., P. coralys or drosse, H. coralyys], acus. c 1480 Harl. MS. 1587 (in Promp. Parv. 92) Acus, coralle. |
▪ III. ˈcoral, v. rare.
[f. coral n.1] trans. To make red like coral, to crimson.
| 1648 Herrick Hesp. (1869) 231 The immortall Sunne Corrols his cheeke to see those rites not done. 1658 W. Chamberlayne Love's Vict. iv. 57 The modest blush Corals the virgin cheek no longer. |