ˈdiamond-back, a. and n.
[Short for next.]
A. adj. = Diamond-backed, having the back marked with one or more lozenge-shaped figures.
| 1887 Lippincott's Mag. Sept. 456 Baltimore,..the home of the soft-shell crab, the diamond-back terrapin. 1894 G. W. Cable J. March xxvii, Di'mon'-back rattle-snake hisself cayn't no mo' scare me 'n if I was a hawg. 1931 H. F. Pringle T. Roosevelt i. v. 58 People of the blue blood dined nightly on diamond-back terrapin. 1956 C. H. Pope Reptile World 219 The diamond-back rattlers..are the giants among rattlesnakes. |
B. n. a. The Diamond-back Moth (see quots.). b. The Diamond-backed Turtle. c. A rattlesnake, Crotalus adamanteus or C. atrox, having diamond-shaped markings on its back. U.S.
| 1819 G. Samouelle Entomol. Compend. 436 The testaceous Diamond-back, Tortrix trapezana. 1891 E. A. Ormerod in Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. 30 Sept. 599 The pale patterns along these edges form diamond-shaped marks, whence the English name ‘diamond-back moth’. Ibid. 611 These showed unmistakable signs of diamond-back caterpillar ravage. 1895 Lippincott's Mag. Jan., The diamond-back [turtle] is undeniably and unspeakably ugly. 1907 R. L. Ditmars Reptile Bk. xlv. 449 The flattened trails of the big Diamond-backs across the dry sandy roads. 1908 Daily Chron. 28 Aug. 7/4 The fangs of a big diamond-back are three-quarters of an inch long. 1956 C. H. Pope Reptile World 219 The western diamond-back (Crotalus atrox) is a reptile of dry country and deserts. |