Definitions

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

  • noun Any of various crustaceans of the order Decapoda, characteristically having five pairs of walking legs attached to the thorax and three pairs of maxillipeds used for feeding, and including the crabs, lobsters, and shrimps.
  • noun Any of various cephalopod mollusks having eight arms and two tentacles, and including the squids and cuttlefishes.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Having ten feet, as a crustacean, or ten rays or arms, as a cephalopod; pertaining to the Decapoda in either sense. Also decapodal, decapodous.
  • noun In Crustacea, a decapodous or ten-footed crustacean, as a crab, lobster, shrimp, or prawn; one of the Decapoda.
  • noun In Mollusca, a decacerous or ten-armed cephalopod; one of the Decapoda.
  • noun Also, rarely, decapode.
  • noun In mech., a ten-wheeled locomotive; strictly, a locomotive having eight driving-wheels and a single truck: a type used for hauling heavy freight-trains.

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

  • noun (Zoöl.) A crustacean with ten feet or legs, as a crab; one of the Decapoda. Also used adjectively, .

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

  • adjective zoology Having ten legs.
  • noun zoology Any of various animals having ten legs or similar appendages, especially mollusks such as squid and cuttlefish.
  • noun zoology Any crustacean, of the order Decapoda, such as crabs or lobsters.
  • noun rail transport A nickname for either the 0-10-0 or 2-10-0 train configurations. Sometimes capitalized.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun crustaceans characteristically having five pairs of locomotor appendages each joined to a segment of the thorax
  • noun cephalopods having eight short tentacles plus two long ones

Etymologies

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

[From New Latin Decapoda, crustacean order name : deca– + -poda, -pod. Sense 2, from New Latin Decapoda, former cephalopod order name : deca– + -poda, -pod.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

deca- + -pod

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Examples

  • To put it in perspective, the whole decapod crustacean (shrimp or prawn) fauna of Japan barely exceeds 1,600 species.

    Archive 2007-02-01 2007

  • The French embassy said a year-long research of fauna conducted in the deep-sea and coastal ecosystems of Panglao Island resulted in the discovery of over 1,200 species of decapod or 10-legged crustaceans and some 6,000 species of mollusks.

    Archive 2007-02-01 2007

  • Saint-Paul, U., 1999a: The contribution of estuarine decapod larvae to marine macrozooplankton communities in Northeast Brazil.

    North Brazil Shelf large marine ecosystem 2008

  • Annotated checklist of marine decapod Crustacea from Shark Bay, Western Australia.

    Shark Bay, Australia 2008

  • Carcinization as an underlying synapomorphy for the decapod crustacean taxon Meiura.

    All that matters 2005

  • Project SQUID was named after the jet-propelled decapod of the sea.

    John B. Fenn - Autobiography 2003

  • Assuming the Vilenjji believed the evidence of their own electronic eyes, they could reasonably come to no other conclusion than that the small quadruped and decapod were both demised and in the process of being digested.

    Lost And Found Foster, Alan Dean 2004

  • “Do you suppose the great decapod-the gods rot his tentacles for the nets he has torn and the catches he has stolen-do you suppose he lives anyplace else?”

    Hokas Pokas Anderson, Poul 2000

  • To-day the modern automobile somewhat resembles, in its outlines, across between a decapod locomotive and a steam fire-engine, or at least something concerning the artistic appearance of which the layman has very grave doubts.

    The Automobilist Abroad

  • They dig somewhat after the manner of the fluviatile long-tailed decapod crustaceans, of the genera

    The Last of the Plainsmen Zane Grey 1905

Comments

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  • "...he turned to the most interesting and most recent creature, a decapod that had fixed the terrible hooks and suckers of its long arms into the net of salt beef towing over the side to get rid of at least some of the salt before the pieces went into the steep-tub—had fixed them with such obstinate strength that it had been drawn aboard."

    --O'Brian, The Wine-Dark Sea, 84–85

    March 14, 2008

  • Could this be...?

    March 14, 2008

  • Judging by its lust for salt-beef, I would say O'Brian's creature is in fact five Newfoundlanders.

    March 14, 2008

  • HA HA HA!! I just saw yarb's comment... tee heeeee!

    October 20, 2008

  • *guffaw*

    April 30, 2009