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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Mollusk

Mollusk \Mol"lusk\, n. [F. mollusque, L. mollusca a kind of soft nut with a thin shell, fr. molluscus soft, mollis soft. See Mollify.] (Zo["o]l.) One of the Mollusca. [Written also mollusc.]

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
mollusk

1783, mollusque (modern spelling from 1839), from French mollusque, from Modern Latin Mollusca (see Mollusca), the phylum name. Related: Molluscuous; molluscan.

Wiktionary
mollusk

n. (context US English) (alternative spelling of mollusc English)

WordNet
mollusk

n. invertebrate having a soft unsegmented body usually enclosed in a shell [syn: mollusc, shellfish]

Usage examples of "mollusk".

If we had better hearing, and could discern the descants of sea birds, the rhythmic tympani of schools of mollusks, or even the distant harmonics of midges hanging over meadows in the sun, the combined sound might lift us off our feet.

The shuttlecraft banked around the sinewy appendage, and they swiveled in their seats to see a gigantic mollusk lumber to the surface and roll lazily in the sun.

With powerful strokes, he reached the surface and took a deep breath before the mollusk pulled him under again.

And we, unlike the mollusk, can invite the disturbance that provokes us into art.

If the body language of a mollusk was anything Archer could trust, he got the idea the alien was all done talking.

The best authorities of the present day, however, are of opinion that the celebrated Tyrian-purple was extracted from a mollusk known as the Janthina prolongata, a shell abundant in the Mediterranean and very common near Narbonne, where the Tyrian purple dye-works were in operation at least six hundred years before Christ.

The headless oysters or clams are mollusks that seem no more intelligent to us than a spring of grass would be, but the related octopus, also a mollusk, we accept as possibly intelligent because it has a head--and eyes.

Great sea mammal sounds began to issue from them both: a groaning against the heavy pressure of the ocean, a squirty opening of mollusk shells, a slapping of wet flippers, an exhalation of salty and humid vapors, a blubberous explosion of moby dick.

Earth there were mollusks with great horny feet which could be fitted into grooves such as Brewster saw here on the immense spiral which fell away beneath him.

The stars were brilliant now and the air smelled of sargassum, mollusks, and pine.

Then Dallas would shovel the opened oysters onto picnic tables covered with newspapers and the perfume of those washed-down mollusks gave off a silvery, slightly metallic musk of a rained-on acre of spartina.

Juan listened to their conversation, wondering why the mollusks had abandoned their ship.

Tentacled mollusks latched onto it immediately and soon aquatic lizards converged on it as well, their needle snouts ripping off gobbets of meat.

Shells of mollusks are exquisitely embellished with ribs, spines, nodes, and colors.

The shells of unfortunate mollusks bled calcium until they deteriorated beyond usefulness.