Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A flexible tonguelike organ found in most mollusks, having rows of horny teeth on the surface and used in feeding for scraping or cutting.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In conchology, the tongue or lingual ribbon of a mollusk, specifically called odontophore, and more particularly, the rasping surface or set of teeth of the odontophore, which bites like a file.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) The chitinous ribbon bearing the teeth of mollusks; -- called also lingual ribbon, and tongue. See odontophore.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun zoology The rasping tongue of snails and most other mollusks.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin rādula, scraper, from rādere, to scrape; see rēd- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin rādula ("scraper").

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