garfish
(ˈgɑːfɪʃ)
Forms: 5 garfysshe, 6 garefish, 7 garre-, 8 gair-, 9 gur(d)-, guard-, 7– garfish. See also gar n.
[app. f. gare n.1 + fish, in allusion to its long sharp nose.]
A fish (Belone vulgaris) with a long spear-like snout, called also green-bone, horn-fish, sea-pike, etc. In America and Australia the name is given to other fishes of similar form, e.g. to various species of Lepidosteus and Hemirhamphus.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 247/1 Horn keke, fysche (S. horne stoke; P. hornkek, or garfysshe). 1577 Harrison England iii. iii. (1878) ii. 21 Of the long sort are congers, eeles, garefish, and such other of that forme. 1611 Cotgr., Orphie, the Hornebeake, Hornekecke, Piper-fish, Garre-fish. 1699 L. Wafer Voy. 126 There is another sort of Fish on the North-Sea Coast, Which our Sea-men call Gar-fish..They have a long Bone on the Snout..and 'tis very sharp at the end. 1756 P. Browne Jamaica (1789) 443 The Gar-Fish. Both the jaws of this fish are long and slender, and furnished with sharp conic teeth. 1810 P. Neill List of Fishes 16 (Jam.) Esox Lucius, Sea-pike; Gar-pike; Guard-fish. 1850 Clutterbuck Port Phillip iii. 44 In the bay are large quantities of..guard-fish. 1854 Badham Halieut. 304 Those singular green bones of the spine which are peculiar to the gar-fish. 1890 Boldrewood Miner's Right xxxviii. 336, I wonder if they have got any of those delicious garfish for us. |
| attrib. 1775 Romans Florida 96 They make them frequently undergo scratching from head to foot through the skin with broken glass or gar fish teeth. |