Forms: see THORN sb. and BACK sb.1; also 5 -bagge, 7 -bage, -bagg.
1. The common ray or skate (Raia clavata) of British seas, used as food, distinguished by having several rows of short sharp spines arranged along the back and tail. Also called † thorny-back (obs.).
c. 1300. Havelok, 759. Þe Butte, þe schulle, þe þornebake. Ibid., 832.
1392. Earl Derby’s Exp. (Camden), 155. Pro vj thornebakkus, iiij d.
c. 1440. Anc. Cookery, in Househ. Ord. (1790), 469. A codlynge or whitynge, or thornbagge, or hadok.
1594. Nashe, Unfort. Trav., 16. My cape cloake … ouer-spreading my backe like a thorne-backe.
1605. Shuttleworths’ Acc. (Chetham Soc.), 170. One thornbage and fyve flokes vjd.
1653. H. Cogan, trans. Pinto’s Trav., xxiv. (1663), 89. We saw Fishes in the Shape of Thornbacks, that were four fathoms about, and had a Muzzle like an Ox.
1859. Yarrell’s Brit. Fishes, II. 582. The Thornback and its female the Maid.
1861. Hulme, trans. Moquin-Tandon, II. III. i. 106. The Thorn-back…, from the shores of the Mediterranean, is of a brown colour, spotted with white and black. The body attains a length of twelve feet.
b. As the name of other species of ray: see quots.
1731. Medley, Kolben’s Cape G. Hope, II. 202. The Cape Thornback is a broad fat fish from three quarters of an inch to an inch thick.
1898. Morris, Austral Eng., Thornback, Name for one of the Stingrays, Raia lemprieri, Richards.
† c. fig. Opprobriously applied to a person.
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe (1871), 101. To be held a flat thornback, or sharp pricking dog-fish to the public weal.
2. a. Short for thornback crab: see 4.
1891. in Cent. Dict.
b. Provincial name of the stickleback.
1859. Yarrell’s Brit. Fishes (ed. 3), II. 75. Rough-tailed Stickleback. Pinkeen … Thornback.
c. 1904. E. Smith (MS.) Warwick. Gloss. (E.D.D.). Thorn-back, a small fish with a strong back fin. It abounds in the Avon, but it is not the stickleback.
† 3. An old maid. slang. Obs.
The female young of the thornback is called maid (MAID sb.1 7), and maiden-skate (Sc.).
1694. Motteux, Rabelais, V. iv. Whether when they were Maids, or Thornbacks, in their Prime, or at their last Prayers.
1709. Brit. Apollo, II. No. 70. 2/2. Meeting with three Thornbacks…, I treated them.
1898. Daily News, 14 March, 4/7. After 25, young ladies were called ‘thorn-backs’ by the much marrying Puritans of New England.
4. attrib., as thornback crab, a species of spider-crab or sea-spider, Maia squinado, called also in U.S. king-crab; † thornback dog, a kind of dog-fish or shark of the genus Galeus; thornback ray = sense 1; thornback skate (see quot.).
1668. Wilkins, Real Char., I. v. § 3. 132. Thornback Dog, [margin] Galeus spinax.
1862. Couch, Brit. Fishes, I. 99. Thornback Ray, Ray-maid…. This is one of the commonest of the Rays, and the most valued.
1875. Melbourne Spectator, 28 Aug., 201/3. A thornback skate [Raia rostrata],… weighing 109 lbs., has been caught … at North Arm.
Hence † Thornbackly a. Obs., of the nature of a thornback: cf. 1 c above.
1605. Tryall Chev., V. ii., in Bullen, Old Pl. (1884), III. 350. The Thornbackly slave!
