'old wife' definitions:
Definition of 'old wife'
From: GCIDE
- Sea bream \Sea" bream`\ (Zool.) Any one of several species of sparoid fishes, especially the common European species (Pagellus centrodontus), the Spanish (Pagellus Oweni), and the black sea bream (Cantharus lineatus); -- called also old wife. [1913 Webster]
Definition of 'old wife'
From: GCIDE
- Spot \Spot\ (sp[o^]t), n. [Cf. Scot. & D. spat, Dan. spette, Sw. spott spittle, slaver; from the root of E. spit. See Spit to eject from the mouth, and cf. Spatter.]
- 1. A mark on a substance or body made by foreign matter; a blot; a place discolored. [1913 Webster]
- Out, damned spot! Out, I say! --Shak. [1913 Webster]
- 2. A stain on character or reputation; something that soils purity; disgrace; reproach; fault; blemish. [1913 Webster]
- Yet Chloe, sure, was formed without a spot. --Pope. [1913 Webster]
- 3. A small part of a different color from the main part, or from the ground upon which it is; as, the spots of a leopard; the spots on a playing card. [1913 Webster]
- 4. A small extent of space; a place; any particular place. "Fixed to one spot." --Otway. [1913 Webster]
- That spot to which I point is Paradise. --Milton. [1913 Webster]
- "A jolly place," said he, "in times of old! But something ails it now: the spot is cursed." --Wordsworth. [1913 Webster]
- 5. (Zool.) A variety of the common domestic pigeon, so called from a spot on its head just above its beak. [1913 Webster]
- 6. (Zool.) (a) A sciaenoid food fish (Liostomus xanthurus) of the Atlantic coast of the United States. It has a black spot behind the shoulders and fifteen oblique dark bars on the sides. Called also goody, Lafayette, masooka, and old wife. (b) The southern redfish, or red horse, which has a spot on each side at the base of the tail. See Redfish. [1913 Webster]
- 7. pl. Commodities, as merchandise and cotton, sold for immediate delivery. [Broker's Cant] [1913 Webster]
- Crescent spot (Zool.), any butterfly of the family Melitaeidae having crescent-shaped white spots along the margins of the red or brown wings.
- Spot lens (Microscopy), a condensing lens in which the light is confined to an annular pencil by means of a small, round diaphragm (the spot), and used in dark-field illumination; -- called also spotted lens.
- Spot rump (Zool.), the Hudsonian godwit ({Limosa haemastica}).
- Spots on the sun. (Astron.) See Sun spot, ander Sun.
- On the spot, or Upon the spot, immediately; before moving; without changing place; as, he made his decision on the spot.
- It was determined upon the spot. --Swift. [1913 Webster]
- Syn: Stain; flaw; speck; blot; disgrace; reproach; fault; blemish; place; site; locality. [1913 Webster]