‖ ˈsquilla
Pl. squillæ.
[L. (see prec.).]
† 1. The squill or sea-onion. Obs.
| 1516 Grete Herball ccccxiii. Y iv, Squilla hath vertue to deuyde and sprede humours. 1539 Elyot Cast. Helthe (1541) 60 Digestiues of fleume,..Hony, Gynger, Squilla. 1563 T. Hill Art Garden. (1593) 30 Certaine rather will, that you sow his hearbe in fashion to a big Onion, and named of the Apothecaries Squilla in the Garden. 1601 R. Chester Love's Martyr (1878) 87 And Squilla, that keepes men from foule despaire. 1611 Cotgr., Scille, the Squilla, or sea Onion. |
† b. A plant or bulb of this. Obs.
| 1562 Turner Herbal ii. (1568) 130 Take the squilla, and couer it round about wyth clay.., and put it into an ouen. |
2. = prec. 4.
| 1658 Rowland tr. Moufet's Theat. Insects ii. xxxvii. 1125 They leap quickly one upon the other as the Fishes Squillæ doe in coupling. 1752 J. Hill Hist. Anim. 28 The Squilla has ten legs, the foremost pair cheliform, or made for pinching and holding things. Ibid., The long-tailed Squilla. 1818 Scoresby in Life (1861) vii. 140 The squillæ are very abundant in the Greenland Sea. 1839 T. Beale Hist. Sperm Whale 189 The common black whale's food, that consists of ‘squillæ’ and other small animals. |
† 3. Zool. (See quot.) Obs.
| 1658 Rowland tr. Moufet's Theat. Insects ii. xxxvii. 1124 The Squilla an Insect differs but little from the fish Squilla, but that it hath the sail-yards much shorter, and a more red colour, or rather a more earthly colour. |