bone-fish Chiefly U.S.
[bone n.]
A name applied to various fishes (see quots.).
| 1734 Mortimer in Phil. Trans. XXXVIII. 317 Mormyrus, ex cinereo nigricans, the Bone-Fish. 1809 Kendall Trav. II. lii. 204 The species of whale taken was..the bone-fish..valued for the article called in commerce whale-bone. 1884 Goode Nat. Hist. Aquatic Anim. 279 The ‘Bone-fish’ of Key West, according to Stearns, belongs to this [sturgeon] family and genus. Ibid. 612 With us it [sc. Albula vulpes] is usually called the ‘Lady-fish’; in the Bermudas the ‘Bone-fish’, or Grubber. Ibid. 674 In Southern New England this fish [sc. dogfish] is called the ‘Bone-fish’. 1897 Outing (U.S.) XXIX. 331/1 The bone-fish somewhat resembles a whiting in shape, with the mouth of a sucker and no teeth. |