ˈsea-ˌdevil
1. A devil supposed to inhabit the sea.
| c 1594 Capt. Wyatt R. Dudley's Voy. W. Ind. (Hakl.) 14, I thinke wee weare haunted with some divelish witches, or at least with some sea divells. a 1711 Ken Edmund Poet. Wks. 1721 II. 23 The Sea-Devil, Dagon. 1891 Kipling Light that Failed viii. (1900) 132 Sea-devils and sea-angels, and the soul half drowned between them. |
2. A name for various ugly fish, as the fishing-frog, various large rays, etc. Cf. devil-fish.
| 1634 T. Johnson tr. Parey's Chirurg. xxv. xxi. 1004 The effigies of a Sea Devill. 1666 J. Davies Hist. Caribby Isles 105 There is sometimes taken by the Fishers a Monster which is ranked among the kinds of Sea-Devils,..what got it the name of Sea-Devil is, that above the eyes there are two little black horns..like those of a Ram. a 1672 Willughby Hist. Pisc. (1686) 85 Rana piscatrix. The Toad-fish or Frog-fish, or Sea-Divel. 1842 in Mem. Amer. Acad. (1846) II. 516 Cephaloptera vampyrus, Sea-Devil. 1848 Zoologist VI. 1976 Angel Fish, Squatina angelus. This strange fish..is frequently called a ‘monk’ and still more commonly a ‘sea-devil’. 1881 Cassell's Nat. Hist. V. 44 The Ox Ray or Sea-devil, Dicerobatis giornæ. 1882 Jordan & Gilbert Synopsis Fishes N. Amer. 52 Manta birostris... Sea Devil; Devil Fish. |
3. fig. Any formidable engine of submarine warfare.
| 1878 N. Amer. Rev. CXXVII. 230 One of these stealthy and effective sea-devils [torpedoes]. 1902 Daily Chron. 14 Oct. 5/2 The two British submarines..go out almost daily for the purpose of familiarising officers and seamen with the mechanism of these ‘modern sea-devils’. |