Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun An elongated flexible unsegmented extension, as one of those surrounding the mouth of a sea anemone, used for feeling, grasping, or locomotion.
- noun One of these structures in a cephalopod, typically being retractile and having a clublike end usually with suckers or hooks, in contrast to an arm, which is nonretractile and typically has suckers along the underside.
- noun Botany One of the sensitive hairs on the leaves of certain insectivorous plants, such as a sundew.
- noun A similar part or extension, especially with respect to the ability to grasp or stretch.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In zoology, some or any elongated and comparatively slender or flexible process or appendage of an animal, used as an organ of touch, or for exploration, prehension, and sometimes locomotion; a feeler; a tentaculum.
- noun In botany, a kind of sensitive hair or filament, such as the glandular hairs of Drosera.
- noun Figuratively, anything resembling a tentacle; a feeler.
- noun See the adjectives.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) A more or less elongated process or organ, simple or branched, proceeding from the head or cephalic region of invertebrate animals, being either an organ of sense, prehension, or motion.
- noun (Zoöl.) a sheathlike structure around the base of the tentacles of many mollusks.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun An elongated,
boneless ,flexible organ orlimb of someanimals , such as theoctopus andsquid .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun something that acts like a tentacle in its ability to grasp and hold
- noun any of various elongated tactile or prehensile flexible organs that occur on the head or near the mouth in many animals; used for feeling or grasping or locomotion
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The right tentacle is recognizable (blue arrow) and so is the pneumostome, the breathing hole (green arrow).
Archive 2009-01-01 AYDIN 2009
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If one tentacle is chopped off, the starfish grows a new one, making it a model of resilience.
Is The Tea Party Movement Like A Pyramid Scheme? The Huffington Post News Team 2010
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The structure of each tentacle is based on the Fin Ray Effect®.
tingilinde: 2008
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The structure of each tentacle is based on the Fin Ray Effect®.
neat model airship 2008
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The tip of the tentacle was a hardened ball, the size of a large fist.
Emperor of Ansalon Niles, Douglas 1993
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These all possess an extraordinary organ situated on the neck, the well-known Y-shaped tentacle, which is entirely concealed in a state of repose, but which is capable of being suddenly thrown out by the insect when alarmed.
Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection A Series of Essays Alfred Russel Wallace 1868
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The tentacle could be a great way to scare the shit out of them.
Squid Hat Attack! 2008
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So, if Obama chooses the second option (i.e., be just a new "tentacle" of the elites), the outrage of betrayed Americans will almost certainly transform American politics radically and forever.
Will Obama be the beginning of the end of our government of elite dem/pug puppets? 2008
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Obama will either be a new "tentacle" of the elites (which will catalyze some kind of national "revolt"), or he will be a champion of the people who elected him and work to liberate our dying country (and human ecosystems) from the evil of astronomically rich elites. '
Will Obama be the beginning of the end of our government of elite dem/pug puppets? 2008
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At first it looked like he was spawning some kind of tentacle, but no… it had fingers.
In Darkness » Blog Archive » From the Archives: The Salesman 2008
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