OCTOPUS • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Octopus

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/ˈɑktəpˌʊs/ Listen

noun

Octopus n.

(Zool.) A genus of eight-armed cephalopods, including numerous species, some of them of large size. See Devilfish.

(Zool.) Any member of the genus Octopus.

(Fig.) Something resembling an octopus in having numerous controlling arms or branches that reach widely and influence many activities; used mostly of organizations, such as diversified corporations.

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Etymology of 'Octopus'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Octopus" Quotes from Famous Books

... "Mr. Chester. A young giant with a grip like an octopus. 'The fairest ornament of her sex.' Never, never heard of him before. Some old flame of Dorothy's, who has discovered her whereabouts and brazenly followed ...

— At the Sign of the Jack O'Lantern • Myrtle Reed

... sought out Sheeley, confident of being able to jog his memory, concerning his part in the affray, but to his dismay he found that Sheeley had already been summoned to the office of the prosecuting attorney. In every direction he turned he encountered the octopus of ...

— A Romance of Billy-Goat Hill • Alice Hegan Rice

... convinced that your friend is none other than the picturesque and romantic criminal whose octopus hand is upon almost every great theft in Europe, and whom the police always fail to catch, so ...

— Mademoiselle of Monte Carlo • William Le Queux

... only uttering the pious wish that the devil was dead," answered Cornelius; "—boiled like an octopus! ha! ha! ha!" ...

— Weighed and Wanting • George MacDonald

... out, and Caldew locked the door behind him and placed the key in his pocket. When they reached the entrance hall Colwyn paused outside the door of the recess where the housekeeper lurked, like an octopus in a pool. At Colwyn's knock a white face, topped by a white cap, came into view through the narrow slit in the curtained glass half of the door, and swam towards them in the interior gloom after the manner of the head of a materialized ghost in ...

— The Hand in the Dark • Arthur J. Rees

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