king crab

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A large crab (Paralithodes camtschatica) inhabiting the coastal waters of Alaska, Japan, and Siberia and valued commercially for its edible flesh. Also called Alaskan king crab.
2. n. See horseshoe crab.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A horseshoecrab or Molucca crab; a crustacean of the family Limulidæ and genus Limulus, as L. polyphemus, L. moluccanus, or L. rotundicaudus. The king-crab is so called from its great size; it sometimes attains a length of 2 feet. The carapace is concavo-convex, rounded in front, and movably divided into the larger anterior horseshoe-shaped cephalothorax, whence the name horseshoe-crab, and a smaller wedge-shaped abdomen, from which projects a long, sharp, bayonet-like tail or telson. On the upper surface are a pair of large compound eyes, and in front of them a pair of small simple eyes. Underneath are five pairs of long ambulatory legs, springing from the cephalothorax near together, and an anterior pair, much smaller and otherwise modified, and differing in the two sexes. The mouth is in the middle line, behind the first pair of legs. Under the abdomen are a number of movable flaps, in the form of thin plates lying one upon another like the leaves of a book; these are pereiopods or swimming-feet, and also respiratory organs or gills. The animal when just hatched is about a quarter of an inch long, has no telson, and the cephalotho-racic and abdominal regions are much alike, being somewhat semicircular and hinged by a straight line. The abdomen showstraces of segmentation, and the general aspect recalls that of a trilobite, of which Limulus is the nearest relative living. In many respects these strange creatures resemble scorpions, and some contend, therefore, that they are arachnidans, not crustaceans. They are found on the eastern coasts of North America and Asia. See cut under horseshoe-crab.
2. n. A British decapod crustacean, Maiasquinado, better known as the thornback-crab.

Wiktionary

1. n. a highly prized crab-like crustacean
2. n. poker slang a king and a three as a starting hand in Texas hold ’em

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Zoöl.) A large crab of the northern Pacific (Paralithodes camtshatica), especially abundant on the coasts of Alaska and Japan, and popular as a food; called also Alaskan king crab.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a large spider crab of Europe
2. n. large marine arthropod of the Atlantic coast of North America having a domed carapace that is shaped like a horseshoe and a stiff pointed tail; a living fossil related to the wood louse
3. n. large edible crab of northern Pacific waters especially along the coasts of Alaska and Japan
4. n. meat of large cold-water crab; mainly leg meat