Obs. rare. Also echineis. [Gr. ἐχενηίς, f. ἔχ-ειν to hold + ναῦς (dat. νηί) ship, from its supposed power of holding back a ship.] The Remora, or Sucking-fish, which has on the crown of its head an oblong flat disk, or sucker, by means of which it can adhere to foreign bodies.
1594. ? Greene, Selimus, Wks. 1881–3, XIV. 209. The Echinæis swimmes against the streames.
1651. J. F[reake], Agrippa’s Occ. Philos., 29. The litle fish Echeneis stops the Ships.
1774. Goldsmith, Nat. Hist. (1862), II. III. i. 300. The Echineis, or Sucking-fish.
