Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The typical genus of the family Echeneididæ, having on the top of the head a large, flat, laminated disk or sucker, composed of numerous transverse plates set obliquely upward and backward, forming an adhesive surface by which the fish attahces itself to various objects, as a larger fish, a ship's bottom, etc.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun the type genus of the Echeneididae; they are typical remoras.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun type genus of the Echeneididae: typical remoras

Etymologies

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Examples

  • According to The Beastmaster, The echeneis is a fish, half a foot in length, that clings to ships and delays their passage.

    A WMAM too tired for catchy titles 2008

  • According to The Beastmaster, The echeneis is a fish, half a foot in length, that clings to ships and delays their passage.

    Archive 2008-05-01 2008

  • The curious little fish, called echeneis, or remora, has indeed the power to stay or not to stay a ship sailing on the high sea under full sail: but it has not the power to make it set sail, or proceed or arrive; it can hinder motion, but cannot give it.

    Treatise on the Love of God 1567-1622 1884

  • "The echeneis is a small fish that is often found on rocks.

    The Miss Rumphius Effect 2009

  • Now it is likely that the echeneis in this case, sticking upon the clammy matter, is not thought an accidental consequent to this cause, but the very cause itself.

    Symposiacs 2004

  • Chaeremonianus the Trallian, when we were at a very noble fish dinner, pointing to a little, long, sharp-headed fish, said the echeneis (ship-stopper) was like that, for he had often seen it as he sailed in the Sicilian sea, and wondered at its strange force; for it stopped the ship when under full sail, till one of the seamen perceived it sticking to the outside of the ship, and took it off.

    Essays and Miscellanies 2004

  • Now it is likely that the echeneis in this case, sticking upon the clammy matter, is not thought an accidental consequent to this cause, but the very cause itself.

    Essays and Miscellanies 2004

  • Chaeremonianus the Trallian, when we were at a very noble fish dinner, pointing to a little, long, sharp-headed fish, said the echeneis (ship-stopper) was like that, for he had often seen it as he sailed in the Sicilian sea, and wondered at its strange force; for it stopped the ship when under full sail, till one of the seamen perceived it sticking to the outside of the ship, and took it off.

    Symposiacs 2004

  • With a favourable wind and with bending oarsmen, are you perhaps delayed by the _echeneis_ (Remora, or sucking-fish)? or by the shell-fish of the Indian Ocean? or by the torpedo, whose touch paralyses the hand?

    The Letters of Cassiodorus Being A Condensed Translation Of The Variae Epistolae Of Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator Senator Cassiodorus 1872

  • No; the echeneis in this case is entangling venality; the bites of the shell-fish, insatiable avarice; the torpedo, fraudulent pretence.

    The Letters of Cassiodorus Being A Condensed Translation Of The Variae Epistolae Of Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator Senator Cassiodorus 1872

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