Definition of octopus in English:

noun

• A cephalopod mollusc with eight sucker-bearing arms, a soft body, strong beaklike jaws, and no internal shell.

  Order Octopoda, class Cephalopoda: Octopus and other genera

  Example sentences

  • ‘The harbor seal's diet consists of fish, cephalopods, such as octopus and squid, and crustaceans.’
  • ‘They eat a wide range of prey, often octopus and small molluscs.’
  • ‘Otters also are known to eat crabs, octopus, squid, sea stars, and fish.’
  • ‘In addition, the octopus can inject a powerful neurotoxin that is stored in the salivary glands to disable or kill its prey.’
  • ‘What are the implications of the physical properties of water for suction attachment in octopus suckers?’
  • ‘The major group of mesozoans, the Dicyemida, live as microscopic parasites in the renal organs of squid and octopuses.’
  • ‘He compares the octopus to the other cephalopods - cuttlefish, crayfish, and the like.’
  • ‘The olives were too strong, and the octopus too hesitant.’
  • ‘The task of retrieving the prey proved too simple for the octopus, so it was given a jar of fish with a screw-cap lid.’
  • ‘The circulatory systems of other vertebrates, as well as those of squids and octopuses, employ similar rubbery materials.’
  • ‘Cephalopods, which includes octopuses and squid, have seriously weird brains.’
  • ‘Abalone belongs to the phylum Mollusca, a group which includes clams, scallops, sea slugs, octopuses, and squid.’
  • ‘Giant cephalopods such as squid and octopuses are also a great source of sea-monster folklore.’
  • ‘Cephalopods, the octopus, the squid and cuttlefish are the main groups, I think.’
  • ‘Local fishermen reported the appearance of large numbers of octopuses.’
  • ‘With more than a 250 species, octopuses are members of an ancient group of animals called cephalopods.’
  • ‘This fish is vital to the reef ecosystem as a predator of smaller fish, lobster, crab, octopus, and shrimp.’
  • ‘The most obvious example is the mantle, a spherical bag of hydrostat in an octopus and a cylinder closed at one end in a squid.’
  • ‘A nautilus does not have suckers on its tentacles like an octopus does.’
  • ‘Indeed, octopuses are frequently observed to exert force on objects with their arms aligned parallel to the line of force.’