Forms: 5 looche, 57 loch, 59 loche, 6 loach. [a. F. loche (13th c.), loach, also dial. slug; cf. mod. Norman loque loach, slug (Moisy). Sp. loja is from Fr.]
1. A small European fish, Cobitis (Nemachilus) barbatula (-us), inhabiting small clear streams and highly prized for food; also, any fish of the family Cobitidæ. Spinous Loach, Cobitis tænia.
1357. [see 4].
14[?]. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 585/18. Fundulus, a looche.
14[?]. Nom., ibid. 705/1. Hec alosa, a loch.
c. 1420. Liber Cocorum (1862), 54. And smalle fysshe thou take sperlynges and men wus withal And loches.
1558. Act 1 Eliz., c. 17 § 4. Places where Smeltes, Loches, Mynneis hathe been used to bee taken.
c. 1560. A. Scott, Poems (S.T.S.), ii. 108. Thair wes nowdir lad nor loun Mycht eit ane baikin loche Ffor fowness.
16517. T. Barker, Art of Angling (1820), 32. Bait your hooks with millers thumbes, loaches.
1653. Walton, Angler, viii. 161. Carps and Loches are observed to breed several months in one year.
1789. G. White, Selborne, xviii. The loach in its general aspect has a pellucid appearance.
1819. Crabbe, T. of Hall, xiii. 6. Where in the shallow stream the loaches play.
1837. M. Donovan, Dom. Econ., II. 33. That ugly little fish the loche.
1869. Blackmore, Lorna D., vii. (ed. 12), 38. A jar of pickled loaches.
1882. Jas. Walker, Jaunt to Auld Reekie, 118. The Coachman, sluggish as a bearded loach.
2. Applied to fishes of other genera.
a. The burbot or eel-pout. (In recent U.S. Dicts.) b. Sea-loach, the whistle-fish.
a. 1672. Willughby, Ichthyogr. (1686), 121. Mustela vulgaris, A Sea Loche Cestriæ. Whistle-fish in Cornubia.
So 1769. Pennant, Brit. Zool., III. 164.
† 3. fig. A simpleton. Obs.
1605. Tryall Chev., III. i. in Bullen, O. Pl., III. 303. The Loach gets me into a Sutlers bath and there sits me drinking for Joanes best cap.
c. 1620. Peeles Jests, 17. This Loach spares not for any expence.
4. attrib. and Comb.
1357. Act 31 Edw. III., Stat. iii. c. 2. Le pesson de Doggerefissh & lochefissh.
1587. Mascall, Govt. Cattle, Oxen (1596), 43. Some do take a loch fish quick, and put it down the beasts throat.
1869. Blackmore, Lorna D., xv. (ed. 12), 90. Was not I a lout gone by, only fit for loach-sticking?
1883. Fisheries Exhib. Catal., 254. Loach Traps, Loach Hook and Rod.