Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of various marine cephalopod mollusks of the family Sepiidae, having eight arms and two long tentacles, a calcareous internal shell, and a broad body.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A cephalopod; specifically, a cephalopod of the genus Sepia and family Sepiidæ; a dibranchiate cephalopodous mollusk, with a depressed body, inclosed in a sac.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Any of various
squidlike cephalopod marine mollusks of thegenus Sepia that have tenarms and acalcareous internal shell andeject a darkinky fluid when indanger .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun ten-armed oval-bodied cephalopod with narrow fins as long as the body and a large calcareous internal shell
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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They even have grilled cuttlefish, which is pretty good.
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One of the most amazing aspects of the cuttlefish is their skin.
Museum Blogs 2010
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One of the most amazing aspects of the cuttlefish is their skin.
Museum Blogs 2010
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One of the most amazing aspects of the cuttlefish is their skin.
Museum Blogs 2010
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One of the most amazing aspects of the cuttlefish is their skin.
Museum Blogs 2010
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Every meal they served us banquet style was pristine, filled with the day's freshest catch, including plenty of squid (also known as cuttlefish in these parts), as they were in season.
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Those people who have seen it think that it is a kind of cuttlefish, but that the arms, or tentacles, as they are called, have been broken away from it.
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While called "cuttlefish," these animals are actually not fish at all-they are members of the class Cephalopoda, which also includes octopus, squid, and the chambered nautilus.
PhysOrg.com - latest science and technology news stories 2009
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While birds and mammals share many neurological features, assessing conscious states in invertebrates, such as cuttlefish and octopuses, is more difficult.
Latest Science News Features, Blog Entries, Column Entries, Issues, Articles and Book Reviews 2009
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While called "cuttlefish," these animals are actually not fish at all-they are members of the class Cephalopoda, which also includes octopus, squid, and the chambered nautilus.
innovations-report 2009
mollusque commented on the word cuttlefish
As to his blood, I suppose the family quarterings are three cuttle-fish sable, and a commentator rampant.
--George Eliot, 1872, Middlemarch
November 8, 2007
chained_bear commented on the word cuttlefish
Holy schmoley! My compliments, mollusque, on a wonderful citation!
November 8, 2007
sonofgroucho commented on the word cuttlefish
Holy schmoley? I agree that is a bizarre quotation from mollusque.
November 9, 2007
chained_bear commented on the word cuttlefish
Well, I *had* typed "holy mackerel!" but then decided that was a lousy pun, even if it was unintentional. And schmoley was the best I could come up with.
I'm having an off-day, what can I say?
November 9, 2007
chained_bear commented on the word cuttlefish
I watched an episode of Nova about cuttlefish recently. I had never known what intricate and complex creatures they are.
I also love the word cephalopod.
November 9, 2007
sionnach commented on the word cuttlefish
cephalopod : where the cephalopygian cephalopygmies hang out.
November 9, 2007
reesetee commented on the word cuttlefish
Sadly, the only real cuttlefish I've seen have been the desiccated parts of them that are sold as calcium supplements for birds.
November 9, 2007
mollusque commented on the word cuttlefish
Is he trying to run a motion through under cover of a cloud of words, essaying the well-known "cuttle-fish trick" of the West?
--Rudyard Kipling, 1891, The City of Dreadful Night
November 9, 2007
chained_bear commented on the word cuttlefish
This is delightful.
December 23, 2008
bilby commented on the word cuttlefish
A lady at my meeting today pronounced this cuddlefish. 3 times. Cephalopods may indeed be lovelorn but I've never thought of them as cuddly.
November 24, 2009
yarb commented on the word cuttlefish
3 times in a row? Was it some sort of invocation?
November 25, 2009
sionnach commented on the word cuttlefish
Maybe her coat of arms consists of three cuddlefish rampant on a field of sable.
and, yarb, methinks you are thinking of beedlejuice.
November 25, 2009
ruzuzu commented on the word cuttlefish
The cuttlefish arms are probably sepia-colored. Not sure what color beetle juice is.
Edit: But here is the Beedle family crest.
November 25, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word cuttlefish
In my dialect, "cuttlefish" and "cuddlefish" are homophones, and I'm having trouble imagining a dialect in which they aren't.
I'm also having trouble imagining what kind of meeting would warrant repeated uses of the word "cuttlefish".
November 25, 2009
uselessness commented on the word cuttlefish
Indeed. I'm going to label anyone who pronounces the two differently as an Overly Pretentious Individual. Just because you can emphasize the hard Ts, doesn't mean you should. ;-)
November 25, 2009
yarb commented on the word cuttlefish
If I had a mic I'd be blowing your cuddly minds right now.
November 25, 2009
sionnach commented on the word cuttlefish
An OPI, am I? Listen to the way these words trip mellifluously off my tongue, and weep!
The moment I enunciated "cuttlefish" for the third time, my kitchen filled up with inky cephalopods, so, if you'll excuse me, I have to tear myself away and go deal with this "situation".
November 25, 2009
uselessness commented on the word cuttlefish
I think you just poked my eyes out with those finely sharpened Ts, 'nach! Next time file 'em down a bit, will ya? :-D
November 25, 2009
bilby commented on the word cuttlefish
I pronounce those Ts. The risk of snuggling up to inky stinkies is far too great to run.
ptero, it was a meeting of a food lobby group ... think locavore, permaculture, organic stuff.
November 25, 2009
Jubjub commented on the word cuttlefish
I'm going to quote this possible etymology and let it speak for itself:
O.E. cudele "the cuttlefish;" perhaps related to M.L.G. küdel "container, pocket;" O.N. koddi "cushion, testicle;" and O.E. codd (see cod).
No-- that can't speak for itself; I'll have to ruin it. But something to note: the prominence of the 'd' in the provenance of the 't'. (Makes you wonder where the 't' comes from.)
November 25, 2009
PossibleUnderscore commented on the word cuttlefish
Love the pronunciation. The t's leap out of the speakers!
November 25, 2009
sionnach commented on the word cuttlefish
And I always thought 'food lobby' was Strine for 'cafeteria'.
But maybe it's rhyming slang for 'hobby', e.g. "unicycle hockey is just my food lobby, my true avocation is tonsil hockey".
November 25, 2009
bilby commented on the word cuttlefish
*picks up a fox and belts it with his hurley 60 metres and over the crossbar for a nice 3-pointer*
Feral fox flogging is my hockey hobby.
November 25, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word cuttlefish
*listens to pronunciation*
Oho, so that's how you differentiate "cuttlefish" from "cuddlefish" -- you aspirate the T's! Oooooh, sionnach, you sly fox!
November 26, 2009
ruzuzu commented on the word cuttlefish
As I was out looking at the stars tonight, I realized what color Betelgeuse is--it's red. Wikipedia tells me it's a red supergiant.
November 27, 2009
bilby commented on the word cuttlefish
Your research report on the colour of beetle juice remains overdue.
November 27, 2009
ruzuzu commented on the word cuttlefish
I think it might be a squishy yellow... unless we're talking about Volkswagen Beetles, in which case it's probably an oily brown.
November 27, 2009
PossibleUnderscore commented on the word cuttlefish
Squishy yellow? No... more like vomity yellow run through with red.
(and the best Volkswagen Beetles are white(or at least a dirish white) with a blue and red stripe and the number 53)
November 27, 2009
PossibleUnderscore commented on the word cuttlefish
That should say dirtyish. I don't know what went wrong with my typing and I'm itching to fix it, but the edit button has disappeared.
November 27, 2009
madmouth commented on the word cuttlefish
unctious ochre
November 27, 2009
ruzuzu commented on the word cuttlefish
I found some Beatle juice boxes.
November 29, 2009
bilby commented on the word cuttlefish
Ha! Mango Starr!
November 29, 2009