Definitions

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

  • noun A tubelike structure in the body of a shelled cephalopod, such as a nautilus, extending through each chamber of the shell.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In the cephalopods, the calcareous tubular wail of the siphon.
  • noun The protrusible portion of the mouth-parts of a true louse, supposed to be modifications of the epipharynx and hypopharynx.
  • noun In zoöl:
  • noun A siphon; especially, the siphon or funnel of tetrabranchiate cephalopods, between the chambers of the shell which it connects. See cut under Tetrabranchiata.
  • noun In entomology, same as nectary, 2. Also called cornicle, honey-tube, siphonet, and siphunculus.

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

  • noun (Zoöl.) The tube which runs through the partitions of chambered cephalopod shells.

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

  • noun A strand of tissue passing longitudinally through the shell of a cephalopod mollusk, used primarily in emptying water from new chambers as the shell grows.

Etymologies

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

[Latin sīphunculus, diminutive of sīphō, sīphōn-, siphon; see siphon.]

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Examples

  • The foramen here described is easily seen; but, as I have stated, there are other modes of communication between the so-called pericardium and the cavity with which the siphuncle communicates, of a far more extensive nature.

    Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 3 Zoology Various

  • It has altered the position of the siphuncle, has placed it in the centre instead of leaving it on the back, but it still whirls its spiral logarithmically as did the Ammonites in the earliest ages of the world's existence.

    The Life of the Spider Jean-Henri Fabre 1869

  • _siphuncle, _ which thus connected the smallest or aphical chamber with the largest.

    On the Method of Zadig Thomas Henry Huxley 1860

Comments

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  • "4. In the cephalopods, the calcareous tubular wail of the siphon."

    --Century Dictionary

    March 9, 2011

  • Tubular wail! Come back Mike Oldfield!

    March 10, 2011

  • Also, "In entomology, same as nectary, 2. Also called cornicle, honey-tube, siphonet, and siphunculus."

    January 31, 2012