Spiny

a. Also 6 spyny, 6–7 spinie, 7 spynie, 7–9 spiney. [f. SPINE sb.¹ + -Y.]

  1.  Having the characteristics of a thorn or thorns; resembling a thorn in form or qualities.

1586.  Kyd, Verses Praise & Joy, 1. Mongst spyny cares sprong vp now at the last.

1615.  G. Sandys, Trav., 223. Psiloriti: from whose lofty and spiny top both seas may be discerned.

1663.  Cowley, Cutter Coleman-St., Pref. And so much for this little spiny objection which a man cannot see without a Magnifying Glass.

  b.  Thin and hard or dry; spare, lean.

  Common in the first half of the 17th cent.

1598.  Florio, Smilzo, bare, spinie, gant, leane, lanke.

1608.  Middleton, Mad World, III. ii. A little, short, old spiny gentleman.

1621.  G. Sandys, Ovid’s Met., VI. (1626), 111. Her thighs and legs to spiny fingers grow.

1650.  Bulwer, Anthropomet., 232. The French commonly have more spinie and slender Legs then the Italian Gentleman.

a. 1722.  [cf. spiny-legged in 5].

  † c.  Of turf or grass. Obs.

1607.  J. Carpenter, Plaine Mans Plough, 139. That which was old must be renewed, and the spinie turfe changed into a gentle soyle.

1615.  G. Sandys, Trav., 198. The valley … producing but a spiny grasse.

  2.  Abounding in, furnished, or thickly set with, thorns. In early quots. fig.

1604.  T. Wright, Passions, I. iii. 11. Wee touched, in part, the roote from whence did spring those spinie braunches of briarie passions.

1635.  A. Stafford, Fem. Glory (1860), 43. Bee constant, most pious Lordes, in the vertuous, though rough and spiny course you are to runne.

1644.  Digby, Nat. Bodies, A iv b. So difficult and spiny an affaire, as the writing vpon such a nice and copious subiect.

1727.  Warburton, Prodigies, 61. The spiney Desarts of Scholastic Philosophy.

1798.  Charlotte Smith, Yng. Philos., II. 164. The holly, whose shining thorny and spiny head so much shadowed the whole eminence.

1830.  Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 54. Shrubs, either unarmed or spiny.

1870.  Hooker, Stud. Flora, 127. Shrubs or small trees, often spiny.

  3.  Furnished or set with spines; covered with slender sharp-pointed processes.

1615.  G. Sandys, Trav., 249. The body light, the taile spiny, and the colour dun.

1728.  Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Spine, The hind Part thereof is Edg’d, or Spiny.

1778.  Encycl. Brit. (ed. 2), III. 1610/1. The strigosus, or plated lobster, with a pyramidal spiny snout.

1804.  Charlotte Smith, Conversations, II. 153. What endless swarms of creatures … Of burnish’d scale and spiny fin!

1843.  Penny Cycl., XXVI. 444. Shell oval, spiny or tuberculous.

1883.  Standard, 3 Aug., 5/7. Two small novel lizards, with remarkable spiney skins.

  Comb.  1857.  T. Moore, Handbk. Brit. Ferns (ed. 3), 39. Pinnæ spiny-serrate.

  b.  In specific names of animals or fishes, as spiny ant-eater, dog-fish, eel, globe-fish, etc.

1827.  Griffith, trans. Cuvier, III. 263. The Echidnes,… otherwise *Spiny Ant-eaters.

1894–5.  Lydekker, Roy. Nat. Hist., III. 286. The echidnas, or spiny anteaters, of which there are two species. Ibid. (1896), V. 533. The *spiny dog-fishes, rays, saw-fishes, and their kindred.

1882.  Jordan & Gilbert, Synopsis Fishes N. Amer., 368. Mastacembelidæ. (The *Spiny Eels.)

1896.  Lydekker, Roy. Nat. Hist., V. 395. The so-called spiny eels of the Oriental region and West Africa.

1834.  Griffith, trans. Cuvier, X. 566. Diodon, (Vulg. *Spiny globe-fish.)

1853.  in Morris, Austral Eng. (1898), 304/2. The *Spiny Lizard (Moloch horridus) of Western Australia.

1898.  Morris, Austral Eng., 430. Spiny Lizard, i.q. Mountain Devil.

1819.  *Spiny lobster [see LOBSTER¹ 1 b].

1862.  Ansted, Channel Isl., II. ix. 233. The spiny lobster, locally called cray-fish…, is also very common.

1884.  Goode, Nat. Hist. Aquat. Anim., 780. The Spiny Lobster or Rock Lobster…. Panulirus interruptus.

1804.  Shaw, Gen. Zool., V. I. 4. *Spiny Loche…. This is distinguished by a double spine situated on each side the head.

1884.  Encycl. Brit., XVII. 6. Acanthomys.… *Spiny-mice.

1894–5.  Lydekker, Roy. Nat. Hist., III. 119. The pretty little murine known as the Malabar spiny-mouse.

1804.  Shaw, Gen. Zool., V. II. 342. *Spiny Shark. Squalus Spinosus.

1896.  Lydekker, Roy. Nat. Hist., V. 535. The spiny shark (Echinorhinus spinosus) of the Mediterranean and Atlantic. Ibid. (1894–5), III. 71. The Ethiopian *spiny squirrels are characterized by their coarse and spiny hair.

1879.  E. P. Wright, Anim. Life, 69. The *Spiny Tanrec (Ericulus spinosus).

1880.  Cassell’s Nat. Hist., IV. 256. The *Spiny Trionyx, or Gymnopus.

  4.  Having the form of a spine; stiff and sharp-pointed.

1828.  Stark, Elem. Nat. Hist., I. 121. Fur ash gray,… composed of rough spiny hairs.

1871.  Huxley, Anat. Vert., 318. The inner surface is often armed with spiny developments of the epidermis.

  5.  Comb., as spiny-backed, -finned, -footed, -haired, -leaved, etc. (Freq. in specific names.)

1885.  Hornaday, 2 Yrs. in Jungle, xxvi. 310. The fishermen catch and eat a good many *spiny-backed rays (Urogymnus asperrimus).

1881.  Cassell’s Nat. Hist., V. 78. Acanthopterygii, or *Spiny-finned fishes.

1802.  Shaw, Gen. Zool., III. I. 112. *Spiny-footed Frog. Rana Spinipes.

1829.  Griffith, trans. Cuvier, VI. 321. Spiny-footed Tyrant, Tyrannus Calcaratus.

1891.  T. Hardy, Tess, II. xxviii. 98. The pollard willows … became *spiny-haired monsters.

1847.  Darlington, Amer. Weeds, etc. (1860), 206. The *Spiny-leaved Sow-thistle (Sonchus Asper).

a. 1722.  Lisle, Husb. (1757), 226. A *spiny legged beast never pays the grazier so well.

1866.  Treas. Bot., 515/1. The leaves are pinnatifid with *spiny-pointed segments.

1880.  Günther, Fishes, 41. The dorsal fin … is either *spiny-rayed, or soft-rayed.

1882.  Jordan & Gilbert, Synopsis Fishes N. Amer., 397. Acanthopteri. (The Spiny-rayed Fishes.)

1831.  Griffith, trans. Cuvier, IX. Syn. 38. *Spiny Tailed Guana.

1877.  Newton, in Encycl. Brit., VII. 505. The Erismaturinæ or Spiny-tailed Ducks.