sea cucumber

American  

noun

1. any echinoderm of the class Holothuroidea, having a long, leathery body with tentacles around the anterior end.

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sea cucumber British  

noun

1. any echinoderm of the class Holothuroidea, having an elongated body covered with a leathery skin and bearing a cluster of tentacles at the oral end. They usually creep on the sea bed or burrow in sand

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sea cucumber Scientific  

1. See holothurian

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Etymology

Origin of sea cucumber

First recorded in 1595–1605

Example Sentences

There's a bone-white lobster, suctioned up for examination at the surface, and a horned sea cucumber whose mast-like spikes collapse into black spaghetti when it arrives on the ship.

From Barron's • Jan. 26, 2026

Some ingredients commonly found in Chinese fine dining include qi-boosting gelatinous fish maw, collagen-rich bird’s nest and nutrient-dense sea cucumber.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 18, 2025

She also posted another video where she appeared to be at a buffet with her teammate Hailey Baptiste, with the two making fun of a sea cucumber dish.

From BBC • Sep. 17, 2025

But the brown sea cucumber — Isostichopus fuscus — is overfished, and that’s cause for regulations around their harvest.

From Seattle Times • Sep. 1, 2023

I had thought it was a sea cucumber, but a gun made a lot more sense—why would the cowboy be pointing a sea cucumber at people as they entered the park?

From "Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus" by Dusti Bowling