cuttle
1 Americanverb (used with object)
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to fold (cloth) face to face after finishing.
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to allow (cloth) to lie without further treatment after fulling, milling, scouring, etc.
noun
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short for cuttlefish cuttlebone
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a small cuttlefish, Sepiola atlantica, often found on beaches
Etymology
Origin of cuttle1
before 1000; late Middle English codel, Old English cudele (replaced in the 16th century by cuttlefish and subsequently reshortened)
Origin of cuttle2
First recorded in 1535–45; origin uncertain
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
There were as yet no saurians or whales to dispute the dominion with these rapacious cephalopods, and so the cuttle family had things for the time all their own way.
From Falling in Love With Other Essays on More Exact Branches of Science by Allen, Grant
There is another fish, named the cuttle, of which whole shoals will sometimes rise at once out of the water, and of which a great multitude fell into their ship.
From The Works of Samuel Johnson, Volume 06 Reviews, Political Tracts, and Lives of Eminent Persons by Johnson, Samuel
With these natural advantages to back them up, it is not surprising that the cuttle family rapidly made their mark in the world.
From Falling in Love With Other Essays on More Exact Branches of Science by Allen, Grant
"I presume you mean that a giant squid or cuttle fish has attacked us," spoke the professor.
From Under the Ocean to the South Pole Or, the Strange Cruise of the Submarine Wonder by Rockwood, Roy
"The term molusc is applied by naturalists to creatures which have no vertebrae, as for example, the cuttle fish and the oyster."
From Willis the Pilot by Adrien, Paul
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.