ˈneedle-fish
[needle n. 1. Cf. G. nadelfisch, Du. naaldvisch, Da. naale-, Sw. nålfisk.]
A name given to various fishes; esp. the pipe-fish or gar-fish.
| 1601 Holland Pliny I. 266 The Horne-beakes or Needle⁓fishes. 1666 J. Davies Hist. Caribby Isles 100 There is a Fish without scales, four foot or thereabouts in length, called the Needle-Fish. 1683–4 Robinson in Phil. Trans. XXIX. 479 A Species of Sea Pike, a-kin to the Needle-Fishes. 1752 Hill Hist. Anim. 203 The Syngnathus, with the middle of the body hexangular, and the tail pinnated. The Needle⁓fish. 1796 Stedman Surinam II. xxiii. 172 A kind of needle⁓fish..was found here in great abundance. 1863 Bates Nat. Amazon ix. (1864) 279 Little troops of needle-fish, eel-like animals with excessively long and slender toothed jaws. 1880–4 F. Day Brit. Fishes II. 148 Belone vulgaris,..horn-fish, needle-fish or long-nose. |