Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun One that clasps.
- noun Any of the appendages of the male of certain insects and crustaceans that are used during copulation to hold the female.
- noun A posterior extension on each of the pelvic fins of male cartilaginous fishes that aids in the transmission of sperm during copulation.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The operator who makes clasps or attaches them to books or other articles.
- noun One who or that which clasps.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun One who, or that which, clasps, as a tendril.
- noun One of a pair of organs used by the male for grasping the female among many of the Crustacea.
- noun One of a pair of male copulatory organs, developed on the anterior side of the ventral fins of sharks and other elasmobranchs. See
Illust. ofChimæra .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Anything that
clasps - noun biology Any of several
appendages , in insects, crustacea and fish, that are used to clasp the female duringcopulation
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
clasp + -er
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Examples
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Harpes: the lateral pieces of the male genitalia in Lepidoptera, used as clasping organs: also applied to the corneous hooks often borne by these lateral pieces, which are then termed valves; see clasper: in culicids an articulated process, sometimes jointed, at the base of inner side of side-piece, below and exterior to the harpagones.
Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology John. B. Smith
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The authors looked for a clasper in their placoderm fossils but couldn't find one, so they were forced to argue that it had been made of soft cartilage and had not been preserved.
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- cl. c., - its - [the] supporting cartilage [of the clasper]. co., colon. d'dnm., duodenum.
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