[f. as prec. + POND.]
1. A pond in which fish are kept.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 163/1. Fisshe ponde, vivarium.
1653. Walton, Angler, ii. 42. An herb Benione, which being hung in a linen cloth near a Fish Pond, or any haunt that he uses, makes him [an otter] avoid the place, which proves he can smell both by water and land.
1777. W. Dalrymple, Trav. Sp. & Port., liv. There is a terrass on the south side, with a fish-pond, and some parterres of flowers.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., IV. 723. He had a small country seat, surrounded by pleasant gardens and fishponds.
fig. 1669. Woodhead, St. Teresa, I. xix. 117. To make so filthy a Fish-pond, as I was, so pure.
b. Applied jocularly to the sea (cf. herring-pond).
1604. Dekker, Honest Wh., I. Wks. 1873, II. 9. Fust. I had not saild a league in that great fishpond (the sea) but I cast up my very gall.
1661. Ogilby, His Majesty’s Entert., 108.
| The great Fish-Pond | |
| Shall be thine-a | |
| Both here, and beyond, | |
| From Strand to Strand, | |
| And underneath the Line-a. |
1866. G. Macdonald, Ann. Q. Neighb., i. 3. If any moral Philistine, as our queer German brothers over the Northern fish-pond would call him, say that this is all rubbish.
2. A depression in a card-table to contain ‘fish’ (see FISH sb.2) or counters.
1785. Cowper, Lett. to Newton, 19 March. It has cost us now and then the downfall of a glass: for, when covered with a table-cloth, the fish-ponds are not easily discerned; and not being seen, are sometimes as little thought of.
