[f. FIN sb. + -Y1.]

1

  1.  Provided with or having fins; finned.

2

1590.  Spenser, F. Q., III. viii. 29.

          With shrilling shriekes, Proteus abrode did rove,
Along the fomy waves driving his finny drove.

3

1695.  Blackmore, Prince Arthur, IV. 51.

        All things appear, which curious search can find,
Or in the Finny, or the Feather’d Kind.

4

1850.  Blackie, Æschylus, I. 142.

        Earth breeds a fearful progeny,
      To man a hostile band,
With finny monsters teems the sea,
      With creeping plagues the land.

5

  b.  nonce-use. Of a person: With arms like fins.

6

1883.  F. M. Crawford, Dr. Claudius, vii. 109. Miss Skeat, who looked tall and finny, and sported a labyrinthine tartan, was generally to be seen entangled in the weather-shrouds near by.

7

  2.  Of the nature of a fin; like a fin.

8

1648.  Herrick, Hesper. (1869), 338.

        Never againe shall I with Finnie-Ore
Put from, or draw unto the faithfull shore.

9

1668.  Wilkins, Real Char., 133. Finny substances, standing out from each side like wings.

10

  3.  a. Of or pertaining to fish. b. Teeming with fish. Cf. FIN sb. 1 c.

11

1764.  Goldsm., The Traveller, 187.

        With patient angle, trolls the finny deep,
Or drives his vent’rous ploughshare to the steep.

12

1831.  Blackw. Mag., XXX. Dec., 965/2. On the surface all is light or shade, foam, froth and bubbles; below, instinctive all with finny life; and let the breezy sunshine but bring out the winged ephemerals, and lo! the sudden spring or the sullen plunge that tells how thickly the hidden caves are peopled.

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1867.  J. B. Rose, trans. The Æneis of Virgil, IV. 289.

        There first Cyllenius paused in his career,
On confines of Numidia; and there
As darts the headlong osprey for his food,
Precipitate or skims the finny flood,
He stooped resistless, to the Libyan shore,
Deserting his maternal ancestor.

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