[STING sb.2]
Any fish of the genus Trygon or family Trygonidæ, esp. Trygon pastinaca. The long tapering tail is armed near the middle with a flattened sharp-pointed bony spine, serrated on both sides, capable of inflicting a severe wound.
1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia, II. 27. Stingraies, whose tailes are very dangerous.
1676. T. Glover, Acc. Virginia, in Phil. Trans., II. 625. There is also a fish called a Sting-ray, which much resembleth a Skate, only on one side of his tayl grows out a sharp bone like a bodkin about four or five inches long.
1881. Cassell’s Nat. Hist., V. 43. The Sting Rays form a large family, about twenty-four species of the genus Trygon being known.
