Crossword clues for cuttlefish
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Cuttle \Cut"tle\ (k[u^]t"t'l), Cuttlefish \Cut"tle*fish`\ (-f[i^]sh`), n. [OE. codule, AS. cudele; akin to G. kuttelfish; cf. G. k["o]tel, D. keutel, dirt from the guts, G. kuttel bowels, entrails. AS. cwi[thorn] womb, Goth. qi[thorn]us belly, womb.]
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(Zo["o]l.) A cephalopod of the genus Sepia, having an internal shell, large eyes, and ten arms furnished with denticulated suckers, by means of which it secures its prey. The name is sometimes applied to dibranchiate cephalopods generally.
Note: It has an ink bag, opening into the siphon, from which, when pursued, it throws out a dark liquid that clouds the water, enabling it to escape observation.
A foul-mouthed fellow. ``An you play the saucy cuttle with me.''
--Shak.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Old English cudele "the cuttlefish;" first element perhaps related to Middle Low German küdel "container, pocket;" Old Norse koddi "cushion, testicle;" and Old English codd (see cod).
Wiktionary
n. Any of various squidlike cephalopod marine mollusks of the genus (taxlink Sepia genus noshow=1) that have ten arms and a calcareous internal shell and eject a dark inky fluid when in danger.
WordNet
n. ten-armed oval-bodied cephalopod with narrow fins as long as the body and a large calcareous internal shell [syn: cuttle]
[also: cuttlefishes (pl)]
Wikipedia
Cuttlefish are marine animals of the order Sepiida. They belong to the class Cephalopoda, which also includes squid, octopuses, and nautiluses. Cuttlefish have a unique internal shell, the cuttlebone. Despite their name, cuttlefish are not fish but molluscs.
Cuttlefish have large, W-shaped pupils, eight arms, and two tentacles furnished with denticulated suckers, with which they secure their prey. They generally range in size from , with the largest species, Sepia apama, reaching in mantle length and over in mass.
Cuttlefish eat small molluscs, crabs, shrimp, fish, octopodes, worms, and other cuttlefish. Their predators include dolphins, sharks, fish, seals, seabirds, and other cuttlefish. The average life expectancy of a cuttlefish is about one to two years. Recent studies indicate cuttlefish are among the most intelligent invertebrates. Cuttlefish also have one of the largest brain-to-body size ratios of all invertebrates.
The 'cuttle' in 'cuttlefish' comes from the Old English name for the species, cudele, which may be cognate with the Old Norse koddi ('cushion') and the Middle Low German Kudel ('rag'). The Greco-Roman world valued the cuttlefish as a source of the unique brown pigment the creature releases from its siphon when it is alarmed. The word for it in both Greek and Latin, sepia, now refers to a brown pigment in English.
Usage examples of "cuttlefish".
In consequence of this dream he went to the province of Hizen, and landed on the sea-shore at Hirato, where, in the midst of a blaze of light, the image which he had carved appeared to him twice, riding on the back of a cuttlefish.
Barrows piled high with crocks of olives, bunches of dried fish, boxes of filberts, trays of fried cuttlefish, mounds of cheeses .
Soon the hot chickens, cuttlefish and sausages would overlay this smell.
In the sea, the ammonites all died out, as did the other shelled forms like belemnites, unrolled ammonites, but the nautilus came through, as did the cuttlefish, squids, and octopuses.
After one trip, he returned with a grainy home video that he'd shot out of the window of a deepwater submersible—the first footage ever shot of a bizarre chemotropic cuttlefish that nobody even knew existed.
In 1861, to the north-east of Teneriffe, very nearly in the same latitude we are in now, the crew of the despatch-boat Alector perceived a monstrous cuttlefish swimming in the waters.
But above that height lay long black clouds, their bellies like dying coals, solid and compact in form, or like those cuttlefish bones seen in certain paintings or drawings, which if you look at them sideways freeze into the shape of skulls.
It served as nest and food for myriads of crustacea and molluscs, crabs, and cuttlefish.
He came to the Lucky Hope Shop, a small place but packed with merchandise: jars of twisted ginseng root, packs of dried cuttlefish, Hello Kitty toys and candies for children, noodles and spices, dusty bags of rice, bins of melon seeds, star noodles, tea for the liver and kidney, dried croaker, oyster sauce, lotus, jelly and gums, frozen tea buns and packs of tripe.
One cannot deny that poulps and cuttlefish exist of a large species, inferior, however, to the cetaceans.