sea-dogn.

1598 W. Phillip tr. J. H. van Linschoten Disc. Voy. E. & W. Indies iii. liv. 415/2 Wee found great store of Sea wolues, which wee call Sea dogges.

1743 J. Bulkeley & J. Cummins Voy. to South-seas 132 A large Seal or Sea-Dog.

1808 W. Scott Marmion ii. ii. 79 The sea-dog..His round black head..Reared o'er the foaming spray.

1879 G. B. Goode Catal. Coll. Animal Resources & Fisheries U.S.: Internat. Exhib. 1876 (Bull. U.S. National Mus. No. 14) 5 Zalophus Gillespiei... The Sea Dog. Pacific Coast.

1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World I. ix. xxxv. 255 If they [sc. mother-of-pearl shell-fish] be in the deepe, accompanied lightly they are with curst Sea-dogs [L. marinis canibus].

1613 S. Purchas Pilgrimage 401 In which [place] are many fishes called Sea-dogges. They which are weary of this world.. cast in themselues here to be deuoured of these fishes.

1725 W. Broome in A. Pope et al. tr. Homer Odyssey III. xii. 118 The Sea-dog and the Dolphin are her food.

1802 J. Pinkerton Mod. Geogr.: Europe I. 11 The chief fisheries [of the Mediterranean] are those of the tunny, of the sword fish, and of the sea dog, a species of shark.

1758 J. Kennedy Curiosities of Wilton House 50 A Figure recumbent, leaning on a Sea-Dog, and representing the River Meander.]

1780 J. Edmondson Compl. Body Heraldry II. (Gloss.) Sea-Dogs, are drawn in shape like the talbot, but with a tail like that of the beaver; a scalloped fin continued down the back, from the head to the tail; the whole body, legs, and tail, scaled, and the feet webbed.

1871 J. B. Burke Peerage at Stourton Supporters.—Two sea-dogs, sa., scaled and finned, erm.

1659 D. Pell Πελαγος Proem. sig. B3 They hunt the Pirat..and sometimes they find..a Dunkirk Hare.., squatted down very closely.., and then is there brave gain, when our Sea-dogs follow after her.

1788 T. Jefferson Writings (1859) II. 387 A regard to the safety and liberty of our seamen..forbids us to give such prices for those in captivity as will draw on our vessels peculiarly the pursuit of those sea-dogs.

1878 E. Dowden Stud. Lit. 1 The galleons of the Spanish Armada were pulled down by the sea-dogs of Drake.

1823 J. F. Cooper Pilot II. xi. 187 Ahead, heave ahead, sea-dogs!

1840 R. H. Dana Two Years before Mast xxiii. 230 The carpenter..was an old sea-dog.

1855 C. Kingsley Westward Ho! iii Sniffing the keen salt air like a young sea-dog.

1887 W. Besant World Went xxix Other Captains..are no whit behind the most old-fashioned sea-dog in courage.

1825 J. Jamieson Etymol. Dict. Sc. Lang. Suppl. Dog, Sea-dog, a name given by mariners, to a meteor seen, immediately above the horizon [see dog n.¹ 9].

1825 J. Jamieson Etymol. Dict. Sc. Lang. Suppl. The term, although used as synon. with Weather-gaw, properly denotes a luminous appearance of a different kind. For while the weather-gaw seems a detached section of a rainbow, the dog has no variety of colours, but is of a dusky white.

1867 W. H. Smyth & E. Belcher Sailor's Word-bk. Sea-dogg, the meteor called also stubb.

1863 R. F. Burton Wanderings W. Afr. I. 1 White sea-dogs coursed and worried one another over Father Mersey's breadth of mud.

1877 E. Peacock Gloss. Words Manley & Corringham, Lincs. Sea-dogs, Sea-hosses, rough waves in the Humber and Trent.

1928 Daily Express 9 Oct. 3/3 A little grey Dover full of small, sturdy ships..and a general air—assisted by a strong smell of oil, pea soup and roasting mutton—of waggish sea doggery.

1961 John o' London's 20 July 111/3 A background of adventure and sea-doggery.