STARFISH • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Starfish

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noun

Starfish n.

(Zool.) Any one of numerous species of echinoderms belonging to the class Asterioidea, in which the body is star-shaped and usually has five rays, though the number of rays varies from five to forty or more. The rays are often long, but are sometimes so short as to appear only as angles to the disklike body. Called also sea star, five-finger, and stellerid. Note: The ophiuroids are also sometimes called starfishes. See Brittle star, and Ophiuroidea.

(Zool.) The dollar fish, or butterfish.

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Etymology of 'Starfish'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Starfish" Quotes from Famous Books

... and his neck seemed unable to hold his heavy head. He laid his cheek on the cold shale, and, with his arms and legs outstretched like a giant starfish, he weakly slid. His body, moving slower than the mass, acted as a kind of wedge, his head serving as a separator to divide the moving bank. He was conscious, too, of a curious sensation in his spine—a feeling ...

— The Man from the Bitter Roots • Caroline Lockhart

... descriptions are found in immense numbers. The five-rayed varieties of starfish are universally condemned as insatiable foes of the oyster family, and the oyster cultivators destroy all they can find. To dismember the body of the starfish by pulling off the finger-like rays does ...

— Wealth of the World's Waste Places and Oceania • Jewett Castello Gilson

Words linked to "Starfish" : starfish flower, class Asteroidea