Also 8 wraws, 8–9 wrass. [ad. Cornish wrach, mutated form of gwrach = Welsh gwrach wrasse, also old woman (cf. OLD WIFE 3). Mod. Cornish dial. has also the form wrath, and wrasse may be an E. plural in -s.]
1. One or other species belonging to the acanthopterygian family Labridæ or esp. the genus Labrus of bony, thick-lipped, marine fishes; esp. the ballan (the ‘old wife,’ Labrus maculatus) or the striped, red, or cook species (L. mixtus), found on the British coasts.
a. 1672. Willughby, Hist. Pisc. (1686), 319. Turdus vulgatissimus, Tincti marini Venetis: Cornub. Wrasse. Ibid., 320. Cornubiensibus Wrasse dicitur.
a. 1705. Ray, Syn. Pisc. (1713), 136. Turdus vulgatissimus,… the Wrasse, or Old Wife.
1752. J. Hill, Hist. Anim., 249. The Wrasse, or Old-wife,… is frequent in the Mediterranean.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., VI. 307. The Labrus or Wrasse [has] the body oval; the head middling; the lips doubled inward.
1860. Gosse, Rom. Nat. Hist., 295. The brilliant wrasses dart out and in, decked in scarlet and green.
1888. Encycl. Brit., XXIV. 686/2. Some 450 species of wrasses … are known.
b. With distinguishing epithet.
Comber, cook, cuckoo, rainbow, red, small-mouthed, striped wrasse: see these words.
1769. Pennant, Brit. Zool., III. 203–8. Ballan Wrasse…. Bimaculated Wrasse, L. bimaculata. Trimaculated Wrasse…. Striped Wrasse…. Gibbous Wrasse. Ibid. (1776), (ed. 4), pl. xlvii. Comber Wrasse. Antient Wrasse.
1836. Yarrell, Brit. Fishes, I. 279–91. The Green-streaked Wrasse…. Red Wrasse, Three-spotted Wrasse [etc.].
1840. Cuvier’s Anim. Kingd., 310. L. Lineatus, the Lineal-streaked,… L. variegatus, the Blue-streaked,… L. carneus, the Three-spotted Wrasse.
1848. Maunder’s Treas. Nat. Hist., s.v., Several species of this Acanthopterygious fish, viz. … the Cook Wrasse or Blue-striped Wrasse [L. variegatus], the Comber Wrasse [L. comber].
1874. J. Couch, Brit. Fishes, III. 30–41. Green Wrass…. Scale-rayed Wrasse…. Small-mouthed wrass. [etc.].
c. New Zealand. (See quots.)
1872. J. Hector, Fishes N. Zealand, 108. A small Wrasse,… called the Spotty or Poddly.
1898. Morris, Austral Eng., 518/2. Wrasse, this English name … is given, in New Zealand, to Labrichthys bothryocosmus, Richards. Called also Poddly, Spotty, and Kelp-fish.
2. Without article. Wrasses collectively.
1750. Heath, Acc. Isl. Scilly, 45. The Fish are … Pilchards, Hake, Wrass, Whistlers.
1763. in Pennant, Brit. Zool. (1776), I. 143. Where the whistling fish, wraws, and polacks resort.
1878. P. Thomson, in Trans. N. Zealand Institute, XI. 384. Wrasse, Parrotfish, and Spotties are often in the market.
1883. All Year Round, 16 June, 16/1. The bill of fare of a family of the neolithic period…. They had mullet and wrasse, dogfish and skate.
3. attrib., as wrasse family, -fish.
1840. trans. Cuvier’s Anim. Kingd., 309. Labridæ (the Wrasse, or Rock-fish Family).
1890. Cent. Dict., s.v. Labrus, Wrasse-fish (Labrus maculatus).
