ˈcoach-whip
1. a. A whip used in driving a coach.
| 1833 J. Rennie Alph. Angling 65 The best lines..run taper like the lash of a coach-whip. |
b. One of two Australian birds, Psophodes olivaceus or Pachycephala rufiventris.
| 1793 Tench Port Jackson 175 To one [of the smaller birds], not bigger than a tom-tit, we have given the name of coach-whip, from its note exactly resembling the smack of a whip. 1827 Trans. Linn. Soc. XV. 330 The loud cracking whip-like noise it makes (from whence the colonists give it the name of Coach-whip) may be heard from a great distance. 1848 Haygarth Bush Life in Australia i. 7 The ‘coach-whip’, with his peculiar jerking cry. 1936 M. Franklin All that Swagger xxxiii. 310 There were..honey-eaters, coach-whips, wagtails, tits and robins. |
c. ellipt. Any of the various coach-whip snakes, esp. Masticophis flagellum. U.S.
| 1827 J. L. Williams View W. Florida 29 The coach-whip is most frequently seen in the pine barrens; he resembles a coach-whip, with a black handle; but is very innocent. 1835 W. G. Simms Partisan 255 The skin of a monstrous coachwhip which..he had been successful enough..to kill without bruising. 1887 Sci. Amer. LVII. 7 A ‘coach-whip’, a snake much like the common black snakes in form, but in color a very dark brown some two thirds of its length. 1943 Clarke Co. Democrat (Grove Hill, Ala.) 12 Aug. 2/2 He was a coach-whip, which measured 72 inches in length. |
2. fig. A long thin strip; pl. shreds, tatters.
| 1781 Archer in Naval Chron. XI. 288 The Sails began to fly..into coach whips. |
3. Naut. ‘The pendant’ (Adm. Smyth).
4. attrib., as coach-whip bird, coach-whip snake (see quots.).
| 1736 Mortimer in Phil. Trans. XXXIX. 256 The Coach-whip Snake; so called from its being very long and slender like a Coach-whip. 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. I. 219 The Coach whip snake..is 6 or 7 feet long, and very slender and active. 1884 Cassell's Fam. Mag. Apr. 271/2 The ‘coach⁓whip’ bird..has a loud, full note, ending sharply like the crack of a whip. 1918 [see coachman 1 d]. |