zebra

zebra, n.
  (ˈziːbrə, ˈzɛbrə)
  Also 7 zabra, zeuera, sebra, zebre, zevre, (zembra), 7–8 zeura; 7 pl. zebrae.
  [Congolese. Cf. F. zèbre, It. (Florio, 1598), Pg. zebra, Sp. cebra.]
  1. A South African equine quadruped (Equus or Hippotigris zebra), of a whitish ground-colour striped all over with regular bars of black; inhabiting mountainous regions, and noted for its wildness and swiftness.
  With qualifying words, applied to other species, as Burchell's Zebra, E. or H. Burchelli (also called dauw); Grévy's Zebra, E. or H. Grevyi. Sometimes applied generically to the whole subgenus Hippotigris, comprising all the striped species of African wild horses, including the Quagga.

1600 J. Pory tr. Leo's Africa Introd. 39 The Zebra or Zabra of this countrey [sc. Congo] being about the bignes of a mule, is a beast of incomparable swiftnes. 1625 Purchas Pilgrims vii. iii. §3. 977 Holding in each hand a Zeueras, or wilde horses tayle. 1638 Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 14 Apes, Baboons,..Zebrae, Wolves, Foxes. 1653 H. Cogan tr. Pinto's Trav. lv. 216 Some applied themselves..to the pursuing of Tygers, Rhinocerots, Ounces, Zevres. 1683 Weekly Mem. 15 A Beast called Zecora or Zembra. 1735 Johnson Lobo's Abyssinia, Voy. i. 5 A Zeura or Wild-Ass, a Creature of large Size, and admirable Beauty. 1776 Gibbon Decl. & F. xii. I. 350 Twenty zebras displayed their elegant forms and variegated beauty to the eyes of the Roman people. 1857 Livingstone Trav. iii. 56 The presence of the..zebra..is always a certain indication of water being within a distance of seven or eight miles. 1886 Besant Childr. Gibeon ii. vi, You might as well put a zebra in harness as Melenda into any kind of service.

  2. transf. Applied to things having stripes resembling or suggesting those of a zebra: a. natural objects (see quots.).

1811 Pinkerton Petral. II. 101 There is also a rare kind [of agate] called the zebra, from its regular black bands upon a white ground. 1815 Burrow Elem. Conchol. 200 Bulla Achatina, Broad-striped Zebra, or Pink-mouthed Chersina. 1901 Field 23 Nov. 812/2 Howietoun still supplies..two-year-old ‘zebras’, a name given to a very beautiful hybrid between our English trout and the American char.

  b. Comm. Name for a striped shawl, scarf, or the like.

1851 Illustr. Exhibitor 7/1 Coloured goods, such as handkerchiefs, ginghams, checks,..scarfs, and zebras. 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, Zebras, a name given to Paisley shawls, which are very generally worn in Turkey, as sashes or other parts of dress.

  c. Humorous name for a convict in striped prison dress. Also, a striped prison uniform.

1882 Sala Amer. Revis. (1885) 218 A ‘Zebra’ is the humorous nickname for a convict. 1895 Harper's Weekly 10 Aug. 753/3 At present I understand that he is in limbo, wearing the famous ‘zebra’—the penitentiary dress. 1935 A. J. Pollock Underworld Speaks 136/1 Zebra, striped prison clothing.

  d. A zebra crossing. colloq.

1951 O. Lancaster in Daily Express 15 Dec. 1/5 If we can only find a Zebra, we can sit down and relax. 1959 Woman 24 Jan. 4/3, I often wait ten minutes or more, even at a zebra, while super new cars speed past. 1968 Listener 15 Aug. 201/3 Outside, on the road, trucks wait for me to cross a zebra. 1976 S. Wales Echo 27 Nov. 9/2 [He] pleaded guilty to stopping a car in a zebra-controlled area.

  3. attrib. and Comb., as zebra mark, zebra marking, zebra meat, zebra skin, zebra stripe; zebra-like, zebra-marked, zebra-striped adjs.; esp. in names of genera, species, or varieties of animals having stripes like those of a zebra, as zebra caterpillar, zebra finch, zebra frog, zebra mackerel, zebra mussel, zebra parakeet, zebra rush, zebra shark, zebra sole, zebra woodpecker (see quots.); also zebra crossing, a pedestrian crossing marked by broad black and white stripes on the road and Belisha beacons on the kerb; zebra danio (ˈdeɪnɪəʊ), a small Indian freshwater fish with horizontal dark and light stripes, Brachydanio rerio (family Cyprinidæ), which is popular as an aquarium fish; zebra fish, an Australian fish (Neotephrœops zebra) of the perch kind; also, any of several striped tropical fishes, esp. the zebra danio; zebra-opossum = zebra-wolf; zebra-plant, a tropical American plant, Maranta (Calathea) zebrina, having large ornamental leaves marked with dark stripes (Treas. Bot. 1866); zebra-poison, a South African tree, Euphorbia arborea, with highly poisonous milky juice (see quot.); zebra spider, any of several striped spiders of the family Salticidæ; zebra-wolf, the striped Tasmanian ‘wolf’ = thylacine; zebra-wood, name for several kinds of ornamentally striped wood used by cabinet-makers, furnished by various trees and shrubs, as Omphalobium Lambertii of S. America, Eugenia fragrans of the W. Indies, and Guettarda speciosa of various tropical regions; also for the plants themselves.

1895 J. H. & A. B. Comstock Study of Insects 305 The *Zebra Caterpillar, Mamestra picta.

[1949 Surveyor 8 July 407/1 Investigations by the Road Research Laboratory..have led to the full-scale trials of the striped (zebra) markings for pedestrian crossings. 1950 Times 18 Feb. 2/5 Experiments are now being carried out..to test the efficacy of the zebra striped pedestrian crossing when illuminated at night.] 1950 Surveyor 23 June 365/2 The initial values of the percentage of drivers giving way are higher on the ‘*zebra’ crossings than on the plain. 1977 B. Pym Quartet in Autumn ii. 23 He..called out angrily after a car which had failed to stop at a zebra crossing.

1917 W. T. Innes Goldfish Varieties & Tropical Aquarium Fishes (ed. 2) vii. 86 Danio rerio, *Zebra Danio. 1962 D. W. Tucker tr. Sterba's Freshw. Fishes of World 265 Some species, such as the Zebra Danio, will spawn over gravelly bottoms even when there are no plants present. 1980 Sci. Amer. Feb. 127/2 McCutchen has employed his rig to study the motion of a small fish, a zebra danio (Brachydanio rerio), which is about three centimeters long.

1889 Science-Gossip XXV. 215 *Zebra finches.

1771 Lort in Phil. Trans. LXI. 247 It is called by the Commodore the *Zebra fish. 1895 Aquarium Apr. 172/1 (heading) Brazilian Zebra Fish (Heros facetus). 1925 Aquatic Life June 18/1 Danio rerio, those swift, graceful, blue and white and sometimes golden striped zebra fish, have many admirers. 1934 C. W. Coates Tropical Fishes as Pets v. 49 The Zebra Fish (Pterois volitans), a marine beast from the Indian Ocean, erects all his fins, faces his future meal, and appears to drift toward it. 1962 Listener 22 Nov. 852/2 The three black-and-white-striped zebra fish were speed-merchants [in the tank]. 1979 H. F. Axelrod et al. Exotic Marine Fishes 121 The scorpion fishes..often called butterfly cod or zebra fishes..are mostly hardy, attractive predators.

1802 Shaw Gen. Zool. III. 123 *Zebra Frog... This appears to be..the largest of all the..slender-bodied Frogs, and is, according to Seba, a native of Carolina and Virginia. Its colour is an elegant pale rufous brown, beautifully marked..with transverse chesnut-coloured bands.

1815 Burrow Elem. Conchol. 201 Buccinum Rugosum, *Zebra Helmet.

1872 Daily Tel. 11 Jan., Certain most brilliant fish, covered with *zebra-like stripes of green and pink.

1802 Shaw Gen. Zool. IV. 587 *Zebra Mackrel. Scomber Zebra..bands of the body continued nearly through the dorsal and anal fin.

1869 J. Paget in Mem. & Lett. (1901) 408 A note from Lord Fitzwilliam about his horse with *zebra-marks.

1924 J. A. Thomson Science Old & New v. 30 Butterflies like the unpalatable *zebra-marked Heliconius, which insectivorous birds leave unmolested.

1949 *Zebra marking [see zebra crossing above].

1907 J. H. Patterson Man-Eaters of Tsavo xxiii. 262 He was afraid that they would seize all the *zebra-meat that the lions had not already eaten.

1883 Goole Weekly Times 7 Sept. 8/4 Down among the side stones are *zebra-mussels (Dreissena polymorpha). 1899 Speaker 18 Feb. 204/1 The zebra mussel is a native of the rivers of Southern Russia.

1855 Engl. Cycl., Nat. Hist. III. 697 T[hylacinus] cynocephalus,..the Tasmanian Wolf, *Zebra Opossum, and Zebra Wolf.

1865 H. Kingsley Hillyars & Burtons l, Others..now so popular in London as *Zebra parakeets.

1882 J. Smith Dict. Pop. Names Plants 449 *Zebra Poison... Its milky juice is highly poisonous, whole herds of zebras having been killed by branches of it being placed in the water which they drink.

1796 Nemnich Polygl.-Lex. 946 *Zebra rhomb, Voluta paupercula.

1882 Garden 2 Sept. 203/1 The Eulalia although very beautiful..is still surpassed by the *Zebra Rush.

1804 Shaw Gen. Zool. V. 352 *Zebra Shark... Squalus tigrinus... Of a dark brown colour,..barred with..milk-white,..somewhat undulating stripes.

1973 G. Beare Snake on Grave xiii. 68 Walls, floor, and ceiling were all done in a *zebra-skin motif. Everything..was covered in zebra skin. 1978 S. Naipaul North of South ii. vi. 230 Copies of Playboy were scattered on a zebra-skin rug.

1803 Shaw, Gen. Zool. IV. 305 *Zebra Sole... Marked from head to tail by numerous..deep brown..bands.

1866 Hours at Home III. 331/1 Next to the garden-spider, the hunting or *zebra spider is the most common. 1966 C. Sweeney Scurrying Bush vi. 87 The commonest of these [jumping spiders] was banded black and white like a zebra... Zebra spiders are able to leap..in an eighteen-inch arc.

1890 Burnand Very Much Abr. 332 The Merry Swiss Boy, in canary-coloured uniform with *zebra stripes over it.

1852 *Zebra-striped [see dove orchis s.v. dove n. 5 b]. 1950 [see zebra crossing above]. 1976 National Observer (U.S.) 21 Aug. 1/3 There was Clarabell in his green-and-white zebra-striped clown suit.

1895 J. H. & A. B. Comstock Study of Insects 379 The *Zebra Swallow-tail, Iphiclides ajax.

1853 Househ. Words VII. 210/2 The skin of the *Zebra-Wolf is smooth and glossy, somewhat resembling in its colour that of the Bengal tiger... Zebra-Wolves are now extremely scarce.

1783 Trans. Soc. Arts I. 22 For importing Earth Nuts, Myrtle Wax, Sturgeon, and *Zebra Wood. {pstlg}175. 1852 R. S. Surtees Sponge's Sp. Tour xlii, A beautiful Devonport of zebra-wood, with a plate-glass back. 1934 [see zingana 2].

  Hence zebraed (ˈziːbrəd) pa. pple. or ppl. a. (cf. F. zébré), striped like a zebra; zeˈbraic [irreg. after Hebraic], zebrine (ˈziːbraɪn) [-ine¹] adjs., related to, or characteristic of, the zebra.

1839 New Monthly Mag. LVI. 311 The whole garment *zebraed with tarnished lace. 1855 Engl. Cycl., Nat. Hist. III. 697 Barred or zebraed on the lower part of the back and rump with about 16 jet-black transverse stripes. 1890 Sat. Rev. 6 Sept. 287/2 Its multi-coloured zebraëd form. 1895 W. Wright Palmyra & Zenobia xxiv. 277 Hermon itself, streaked and zebraed with snow.

1898 A. Lang in Longm. Mag. Oct. 559 The horse is supposed to have been developed out of the zebra, or a *zebraic animal.

1868 Darwin Anim. & Pl. II. 373 The *zebrine stripes on dun⁓coloured horses.

  
  
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   Add: [2.] [a.] spec. a zebra finch. (Further examples.)

1882 W. T. Greene Notes Cage Birds iv. 77 A collection of thirty-five zebras, bred some years ago in one season from two pairs of imported birds by Mr. A. F. Wiener..led to our procuring a pair and turning them into a conservatory. 1934 Foreigner Apr. 88 On leaving the nest young Zebras rather resemble adult hens. 1957 H. G. Lamond Dingo v. 47 The wind..picked out the loose fibres of the crazily built zebras' nests and lifted them high in straggling streams of straw. 1988 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 16 Sept. (Great Outdoors Suppl.) 3/5 Zebras can tolerate a level of salinity in their drinking water as high as the salt content of sea water.

Oxford English Dictionary