Dictionary

mackerel sky en · NOUN

Etymology

From mackerel + sky.

Meanings

1. A sky filled with a regular pattern of altocumulus clouds somewhat resembling the skin of a mackerel.
   • The sky was what is called a mackerel sky, rows and rows of faint down-plumes of cloud, just tinted with the midsummer sunset. 1898, H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: Heinemann, Book 1, Chapter 13, p. 111:
   • 1717, Dictionarium Rusticum, Urbanicum & Botanicum, London: J. Nicholson et al., 2nd edition, “CLOUDS,” […] in a fair day, if the Sky seem to be dappled with white Clouds, which is usually termed, A Mackerel-Sky, it commonly predicts rain:
   • The clouds came racing over the ridge from the south as they had on the May evening when Hazel first climbed the down. But now they were higher and smaller, settling at last into a mackerel sky like a beach at low tide. 1972, Richard Adams, Watership Down, Penguin, published 1974, Part 2, Chapter 25, p. 217:
   • The clouds were of the fleecy kind, which sailors denominate a mackerel sky. 1823, John Franklin, Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea, London: John Murray, Appendix 3, p. 562:

Forms

Deriveds

mackerel sky and mare's-tails make tall ships carry low sails

Translations (9)

ga spéir dhroim an ronnaigh (sky filled with a regular pattern of altocumulus clouds) · de Schäfchenwolken (sky filled with a regular pattern of altocumulus clouds) · cs beránky (sky filled with a regular pattern of altocumulus clouds) · es cielo aborregado (sky filled with a regular pattern of altocumulus clouds) · ga spéir ronnach (sky filled with a regular pattern of altocumulus clouds) · fr ciel moutonné (sky filled with a regular pattern of altocumulus clouds) · mi rangi kōpukupuku (sky filled with a regular pattern of altocumulus clouds) · de Schäfchen (sky filled with a regular pattern of altocumulus clouds) · mi māra kūmara a Ngātoro-i-rangi (sky filled with a regular pattern of altocumulus clouds)