Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A long flexible snout or trunk, as of an elephant.
- noun A slender, tubular organ in the head region of an invertebrate, such as certain insects and worms, usually used for sucking or piercing.
- noun A human nose, especially a prominent one.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun An elephant's trunk; hence, a long flexible snout, as the tapir's, or the nose of the proboscis-monkey. See cut under
Nasalis . - noun Any proboscidiform part or organ: anything that sticks out in front of an animal like an elephant's trunk. See cut under
Cystophorinæ .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) A hollow organ or tube attached to the head, or connected with the mouth, of various animals, and generally used in taking food or drink; a snout; a trunk.
- noun (Zoöl.) By extension, applied to various tubelike mouth organs of the lower animals that can be everted or protruded.
- noun Jocose The nose.
- noun (Zoöl.) See
Kahau .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun anatomy An elongated tube from the head or connected to the mouth, of an animal.
- noun Informally, a large human nose.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a long flexible snout as of an elephant
- noun the human nose (especially when it is large)
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word proboscis.
Examples
-
With a single or twin proboscis-like suction pipes, it pumps up materials from the sea floor and then discharges them into a storage compartment known as the hopper.
-
With a single or twin proboscis-like suction pipes, it pumps up materials from the sea floor and then discharges them into a storage compartment known as the hopper.
Archive 2006-07-01 2006
-
The contractile vacuole is terminal, the proboscis is short, slightly raised and separated from the body by a deep cleft; the buccal cilia are inserted part way up on the proboscis.
Marine Protozoa from Woods Hole Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission 21:415-468, 1901 1906
-
Not all parasites pass through a transformation inside the vector and remain in the salivary glands: filarial parasites are attached to the so-called proboscis (the mouth-part penetrating the skin) and are therefore transmitted mechanically.
Chapter 6 1996
-
For the mandibles were sharp, pointed ivory fangs; the proboscis was a kind of tongue in the vaguely mammalian mouths of these moths.
An East Wind Coming Cover, Arthur Byron 1979
-
The right side is flattened and alone provided with cilia, while the left side of the body proper is arched; on the left side of the proboscis is a row of coarse cilia resembling an adoral zone, and a row of trichocysts.
Marine Protozoa from Woods Hole Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission 21:415-468, 1901 1906
-
We all know where the bees go to fetch their honey, and how, when a bee settles on a flower, she thrusts into it her small tongue-like proboscis, which is really
The Fairy-Land of Science Arabella B. Buckley 1884
-
Faix if it wasn't that her proboscis is a taste longer,
Ungava 1859
-
The adult also have antennae, and proboscis, which is used for the sucking of nectar.
-
The proboscis is the part of the head that the bug uses to feed on its prey.
mialuthien commented on the word proboscis
proboscis – a long flexible snout or trunk, as of an elephant; the slender, tubular feeding and sucking organ of certain invertebrates, such as insects, worms, and mollusks; a human nose, especially a prominent one
July 14, 2008