rayfishn.

a1500 St. Augustine of Canterbury (Lamb. 72) in R. Hamer & V. Russell Suppl. Lives ‘Gilte Legende’ (2000) 374 It is seyde that they kast vpon hym the taylis of ray fysschis.

1510 J. Stanbridge Vocabula sig. Cvi^v Cum rata, ray fysshe.

1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Coliart, a kind of smooth, and straw-coloured Ray-fish.

1634 P. Holland Hist. World ix. xlii. 261 The Skate and the Turbot lie secret vnder the mud, putting out their finnes, which stir and crawle as if it were some little wormes; and all to draw them neer, that she might entrap them. Euen so doth the Ray-fish or Thorn-back.

1753 Chambers's Cycl. Suppl. at Mouth In some the Mouth is placed in the lower or under part of the head under the snout. Examples of this we have in the ray-fishes, the squatina, the petromyza.

1789 G. Keate Acct. Pelew Islands (new ed.) 311 Our people saw a very few daggers, made of the sting of the Ray-fish, which is jagged all upwards from the point.

1866 Jrnl. Royal Geogr. Soc. 36 81 The end of the tail of a species of ray-fish is sometimes used as a [spear] point.

a1894 R. L. Stevenson In South Seas (1896) ii. vi. 207 The spirit of the sea..carried them ashore in the guise of a ray fish.

1962 K. F. Lagler et al. Ichthyol. viii. 247 In many rayfishes..gas resorption is also performed by..the oval organ situated in the posterior portion of the gas bladder.

1985 G. Dingerkus in K. Banister & A. Campbell Encycl. Underwater Life 138/2 The mere mention of rayfish to a mariner conjures up images of gigantic jumping devilfishes, potently venomous stingarees,..and the electric ray which can stun the unwary.

2009 G. Turner tr. M. Ajvaz Other City xvi. 111 The ray fish was evidently extremely exhausted by now and the electric shocks were growing feebler.