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octopus

American  
[ok-tuh-puhs] / ˈɒk tə pəs /

noun

plural

octopuses, octopi

  1. any octopod of the genus Octopus, having a soft, oval body and eight sucker-bearing arms, living mostly at the bottom of the sea.

  2. something likened to an octopus, as an organization with many forms of far-reaching influence or control.

octopus British  
/ ˈɒktəpəs /

noun

  1. any cephalopod mollusc of the genera Octopus, Eledone, etc, having a soft oval body with eight long suckered tentacles and occurring at the sea bottom: order Octopoda (octopods)

  2. a powerful influential organization with far-reaching effects, esp harmful ones

  3. another name for spider

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of octopus

1750–60; < New Latin < Greek oktṓpous (plural oktṓpodes ) eight-footed; octo-, -pod

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.