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  1. limpet love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. Any of numerous marine gastropod mollusks, as of the families Acmaeidae and Patellidae, characteristically having a conical shell and adhering to rocks of tidal areas.
  2. n. One that clings persistently.
  3. n. A type of explosive designed to cling to the hull of a ship and detonate on contact or signal.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A marine docoglossate gastropod with an open conical shell imperforate at the apex. The species mostly belong to the families Patellidæ and Acmæidæ; the best-known is Patella vulgata, the common limpet of northern Europe. This inhabits rocky coasts, and selects a site on intertidal rocks, which it uses as a resting-place and wears down into a cavity, making short excursions in search of food, which consists chiefly of algæ. Limpets are noted for sticking closely to rocks by means of their adhesive foot, which acts as a sucker, bringing considerable atmospheric pressure to bear upon their shells, which latter, moreover, fit tightly in consequence of the evenly rounded aperture. Large numbers are collected for fish-bait, and they are also used as food by the poor. See bonnet-limpet, keyhole-limpet, slipper-limpet.
  2. n. Some mollusk resembling the foregoing, at least in shape of the shell.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A small mollusc, of the family Patellidae with a conical shell found clinging to rocks in the intertidal zones of rocky shores.
  2. n. UK Someone dependant; someone disregarding or ignorant of another's personal space.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Zoöl.) In a general sense, any hatshaped, or conical, gastropod shell.
  2. n. Any one of many species of marine shellfish of the order Docoglossa, mostly found adhering to rocks, between tides.
  3. n. Somthing or someone that clings tenaciously to another object or person a military explosive device having magnets allowing it to cling to a metallic target object, such as the hull of a ship.
  4. n. Any species of Siphonaria, a genus of limpet-shaped Pulmonifera, living between tides, on rocks.
  5. n. A keyhole limpet. See Fissurella.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. mollusk with a low conical shell
  2. n. any of various usually marine gastropods with low conical shells; found clinging to rocks in littoral areas

Etymologies

  1. Possibly Middle English lempet, European limpet (sense uncertain). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “Neal laughed, but he felt that to use Una's hair as a wrap for the red pulp of a crab's back or the soft, black belly of a limpet was a kind of profanation.”

    The Northern Iron

  • “For instance, a small snail called a limpet that fed on organisms that grew on the grass went extinct.”

    KansasCity.com: Front Page

  • “Imagine the limpet is the antelope of the undersea Serengeti, grazing majestically on algae," he intones, bouncing the shell along.”

    Thestar.com - Home Page

  • “He said the landmines would have had to be detonated by smaller adhesive "limpet" mines, triggered by a timing device.”

    ANC Daily News Briefing

  • “This dwelling is in shape and appearance like the back shell of a tortoise, or, still more, like a "limpet," being attached to the stem of the tree in the same manner that the latter adheres to a rock.”

    Eight Years' Wanderings in Ceylon

  • “The former is headed by someone called Graham Dalton, who, it seems, is a time-serving apparatchik from the DoT, which, as we all know, is headed by that limpet-like nincompoop, Geoff BuffHoon, one of new Labour's 'Jack of All Trades & Master of None'.”

    Another Fine Mess

  • “The shelves in the Alexander living room are lined with conch and limpet shells, polished stones and cobalt blue glass.”

    The Washington Post: Blood and ink relations: National Book Festival's Adele and Elizabeth Alexander

  • “In February 1965, I went to New Zealand to study two kinds of bioluminescent organisms: the cave worm Arachnocampa and the freshwater limpet Latia.”

    Osamu Shimomura - Autobiography

  • “Between 1965 and 1978, in addition to my work with aequorin, I also did research on the bioluminescence of various luminous organisms including the limpet Latia; the krill Meganyctiphanes; the worm Chaetopterus; the firefly squid Watasenia, various coelenterates, and luminous bacteria.”

    Osamu Shimomura - Autobiography

  • “After that, things get weird as he's chased through city boroughs organized by musical genres by a limpet encyclopedia saleswoman (who latches on to her mark and won't let go), and four motorbike riders named after the Apocalyptic horsemen.”

    Outrageous Fortune, by Tim Scott

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hypernyms (1)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. shellfish

same context (20)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. conger
  2. abalone
  3. hyperatomic
  4. peeper
  1. high-force
  2. norther
  3. loincloth
  4. lapful
  1. mullets
  2. single-cylinder
  3. dhoti
  4. gyromagnetic
  1. series-wound
  2. topee
  3. belter
  4. permanent-magnet
  1. brushless
  2. variable-speed
  3. sleuthhound
  4. tin-can

reverse dictionary (49)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. patella vulgata
  2. diodora apertura
  3. fissurella apertura
  4. keyhole limpet
  5. common limpet
  6. rock-limpet
  7. calyptræa
  8. lampet
  9. lampit
  1. acmæid
  2. fissurella
  3. duck's-bill limpet
  4. limpet
  5. limpin
  6. cunner
  7. pap-shell
  8. patelline
  9. patellite
  1. patelloid
  2. phyllidiobranchiate
  3. boat shell
  4. ancylinæ
  5. bonnet limpet
  6. bonnet-shell
  7. cyclobranchiate
  8. deck-head
  9. emarginuliform
  1. gadiniidæ
  2. gundlachia
  3. half-deck
  4. patelliform
  5. gastropod
  6. dragon shell
  7. river limpet
  8. freshwater limpet
  9. genus ancylus
  1. ancylus
  2. ancylus fluviatilis
  3. patella
  4. siphonarid
  5. zygobranchia
  6. concholepas
  7. navicella
  8. pileolus
  9. radicate
  1. roost
  2. scar
  3. scutibranchiata
  4. umbrella

tags (2)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. animal
  1. mollusk

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tagging (1)

Words tagged ‘limpet’

  1. Ancistromesus

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Comments

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  • sionnach A clingy enzyme sometimes used in cheesemaking to make the final product less stiff. Also can be used as an antidote in cases of inadvertent Viagra overdosing; though it resolves the immediate stiffness crisis, side-effects of excessive clinginess have been noted in certain subjects. Jan 20, 2009

  • seanahan It's funny, because 8 years on, nobody every mentions it, and I can't remember the last time I thought about it. Nov 8, 2007

  • mollusque In a thousand books yet to be written, the word 'impeachment' will cling to the name 'Clinton' like a limpet.
    --New York Times, 13 Feb 1999 Nov 8, 2007

  • brtom "Better not stick here all night like a limpet. This weather makes you dull."
    Joyce, Ulysses, 13
    Jan 14, 2007

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‘limpet’ has been looked up 2420 times, loved by 3 people, added to 24 lists, commented on 4 times, and has a Scrabble score of 10.