Meaning

(countable, loosely) Any of several marine molluscs of the order Octopoda, having no internal or external protective shell or bone (unlike the nautilus, squid and cuttlefish) and eight arms each covered with suckers..

Definitions by Sense

1. (countable, loosely) Any of several marine molluscs of the order Octopoda, having no internal or external protective shell or bone (unlike the nautilus, squid and cuttlefish) and eight arms each covered with suckers.
2. (countable, strictly) A mollusc from genus Octopus.
3. (uncountable) The flesh of these marine molluscs eaten as food.
4. (countable) An organization that has many powerful branches controlled from the centre.
5. (American football, informal) An instance of a player scoring a touchdown immediately followed by a successful two-point conversion, resulting in a total score of eight points.
6. (countable, diving) A safety device allowing divers to share an air supply in an emergency.
7. To put (or attempt to put) one's fingers, hands or arms in many things or places at roughly the same time.
8. To spread out in long arms or legs in many directions.

Example Sentences

Even octopuses without stylets almost certainly retain the molecular machinery necessary to build them.

In terms of diversity, cephalopods include the egg case making argonauts, shelled nautiluses, venomous blue-ringed octopuses and enigmatic giants like the giant and colossal squid. […] Fossilised ink sacs are more conclusively known from the extinct “soft-bodied” Coleoidea cephalopods in groups Belemitida (including belemnites with bullet-like internal skeletons commonly found as fossils) and Phragmoteuthida as well as from squid, octopus and cuttlefish fossils.

In one photograph, a teenaged Leah crouches by a tall cylindrical tank containing what she identified to me as a giant Pacific octopus named Pamela. We were pals, she said, in a voice that I thought seemed to strive for offhandedness, did you know they taste with their skin? Octopuses, I mean.

He rises up on his wasted legs, the healer's hands octopussed on his head.

A skinny, sauced-looking gent in shorts and baseball cap wandered in through the door, his arms octopussing no less than three pre-teen girls.

I took off my shirt, standing in swim trunks, embarrassed of my tour body, my hands octopussing around the ashamed drink tickets of my gut.

The bug-eyed press octopussed to their respective word processors.

Dirt roads octopussed into the interior, where there were more dried mud and shrivelled crops.

Word Forms

• octopuses
• octopusses
• octopi
• octopii
• octopodes
• octopus
• octopussing
• octopusing
• octopussed
• octopused

Synonyms for octopus

Related Words

When Should You Use Octopus?

Use octopus when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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