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mackerel sky

noun

  1. an extensive group of cirrocumulus or altocumulus clouds, especially when well-marked in their arrangement: so called because of a resemblance to the scales on a mackerel.


mackerel sky

noun

  1. a sky patterned with cirrocumulus or small altocumulus clouds
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Word History and Origins

Origin of mackerel sky1

First recorded in 1660–70
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Word History and Origins

Origin of mackerel sky1

from the similarity to the pattern on a mackerel's back
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Example Sentences

The old proverb, “Mackerel sky, soon wet or soon dry,” expresses this uncertainty.

Another form that the cirro stratus may assume is the mackerel sky,—clouds with the light and shade of the scales of a fish.

I have never met with ten persons who applied even the term “mackerel sky” to the same precise form of cirro-stratus.

The sky was what is called a mackerel sky--rows and rows of faint down-plumes of cloud, just tinted with the midsummer sunset.

They were light cumuli, or cirro-cumuli, shifting into a brightly shining mackerel sky.

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