| E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898. |
| | | Shark. | | |
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A swindler, a pilferer; one who snaps up things like a shark, which eats almost anything, and seems to care little whether its food is alive or dead, fish, flesh, or human bodies. | 1 |
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| “These thieves doe rob us with our owne good will, |
| And have Dame Nature’s warrant for it still; |
| Sometimes these sharks doe worke each other’s wrack, |
| The ravening belly often robs the backe.” | |
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Taylor’s Workes, ii. 117. |
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The shark flies the feather. This is a sailor’s proverb founded on observation. Though a shark is so voracious that it will swallow without distinction everything that drops from a ship into the sea, such as cordage, cloth, pitch, wood, and even knives, yet it will never touch a pilot-fish (q.v.) or a fowl, either alive or dead. It avoids sea-gulls, sea-mews, petrels, and every feathered thing. (St. Pierre: Studies, i.) | 2 |
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