sea donkey

English

Noun

seadonkey(pluralsea donkeys)

1. The common name for various fish,especially thehakeor thespadefish.
   • 1958,Review of the Fisheries of British Guiana,page10:

     The ectoparasitic isopod,Nerocila armataDana, so common on the head of smallSea Donkey(Chaetodipterus faber) was also sometimes attached to Sea Trout fins or head.

   • 1960,World Fishing - Volume 9,page27:

     Some of the fish commonly caught in the trawl off British Guiana were croaker, bangamary, sea trout, sea patwa, annafolk,sea donkey,pomfret, moonfish, mackerel, barracuda and blue fish

   • 2018,William Fortenbaugh,Eudemus of Rhodes,page211:

     Other reports suggest a taste for marvels, at least in his audience: the peculiar anatomy of the “sea-donkey”or hake, which has its heart “in the middle of its gut”[…]

   • 2023,Talmud:

     Thesea-donkeyis allowed, but not the sea-ox; and you remember this by the following mark: the unclean (on earth?) is clean, while the clean is unclean.

2. Someone or something thatlivesorworksatseaand is similar in some way to adonkey,especially by performinghumbletasks.
   • 1895,William Clark Russell,The Honour of the Flag,page88:

     There was an odd look of confusion aloft, or rather let me describe it as a want of that sort of precision which a sailor's eye would seek for and instantly miss, even in the commonest oldsea-donkeyof a collier.

   • 1947,K. H. C. Lo,Forgotten Wave,page96:

     Looking at me you would think that I am just an old'sea donkey';you would never have thought that I have shaken hands with the very Emperor of Great Britain!

   • 2001,David McGill,Island of Secrets: Matiu/Somes Island in Wellington Harbour,page131:

     ON316446 arrived at Somes in 1948 to her proud new launchmaster Ken Weir, his wife bestowing the island's original name Matiu on the vessel.Matiuhad 44 years to go assea donkeyfor the quarantine station and its islanders.

   • 2010,T. M. Shine,Nothing Happens Until It Happens to You,page57:

     The dolphin is struggling, trudging as if it were a burro trying to go up a rocky incline—asea donkey.

3. A term ofopprobrium.
   • 1876,Theresa West,All for an Ideal: a Girl's Dream of a Past Period,page139:

     You've more brass than a highwayman, you fat-headedsea-donkey!

   • 1884,Theresa Cornwallis J. West,The doom of Doolandour - Volume 3,page67:

     You fat-headed son of asea donkey!You portentous prig! Youarea nice trainer for hopeful ingenuous youth!

   • 2013,Ross O'Carroll-Kelly,Downturn Abbey:

     I mean, there she was on the radio this morning – you heard her – finally admitting what a bet-down, gin-soaked,sea-donkeyof a mother she was to me growing up.

   • 2015,James De Lorenzi,Guardians of the Tradition,page88:

     You with a cat's eye and baboon's hair, you white-assedsea donkeyfrom across seven rivers!