lobster

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of several edible marine crustaceans of the family Homaridae, especially of the genus Homarus, having stalked eyes, long antennae, and five pairs of legs, the first pair of which is modified into large pincers.
2. n. Any of several crustaceans, such as the spiny lobster, that are related to the lobsters.
3. n. The flesh of a lobster used as food.
4. v. To search for and catch lobsters.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A marine, stalk-eyed, long-tailed, ten-footed crustacean of the subclass Podophthalma or Thoracostraca, order Decapoda, suborder Macrura, family Homaridæ, and genus Homarus, such as H. vulgaris of Europe or H. americanus of the Atlantic coast of North America. The lobster has two pairs of feelers, one pair short, the other remarkably long. The mouthparts are modified legs, as in all crustaceans and other arthropods. The first pair of ambulatory legs are enormously and unsymmetrically enlarged and chelate, being the great so-called “claws.” The other four pairs of legs are smaller and more strictly ambulatorial, ending in simple pincers or single hooks. The cephalothorax is a large soldered carapace. The abdomen or tail is long, jointed, and flexible, consisting of hard rings or segments on top and at the sides, and of a soft but tough membrane underneath, which bears the pleiopods, swimmerets, or swimming-feet; it ends in a set of shelly plates, the telson, spreading like a fan, used in swimming. The hairy flaps or processes attached to the roots of the walking-legs are the gills or breathing-organs. The female carries masses of eggs (the coral or berry) under the abdomen. The most fleshy parts are the muscles of the great claws and of the tail. The eyes are mounted on short movable stalks, the ophthalmites. Lobsters are carnivorous and predatory. They live chiefly on rocky sea-coasts. They molt or cast their shell periodically. The natural color is variously greenish, bluish, livid, etc.; the familiar bright-red color is due to boiling. The flesh is savory, and the lobster-industry is one of high economic importance.
2. n. One of several other crustaceans resembling the above. The Norway lobster is Nephrops norvegicus, of the family Homaridæ. Various crawfishes of the family Astacidæ are sometimes called fresh-water lobsters. A related marine crustacean of the family Palinuridæ, Palinurus vulgaris, the sea-crawfish, is known as the spring lobster, rock-lobster, and spiny lobster.
3. n. The common sole, Solea vulgaris.
4. n. A stoat.
5. n. A British soldier: probably so called originally in allusion to his cuirass, but the name is now generally supposed to refer to his red coat.
6. n. A dull fellow, who is easily imposed upon; an irritating blockhead; a foolish bore; a chump: a vague term for contempt.
7. n. In cricket, a bowler of lobs or underhand balls. See lob, 8.

Wiktionary

1. adj. red-colored, especially from a sunburn.
2. n. A crustacean of the Nephropidae family, normally red in colour, with claws, which is used as an expensive seafood.
3. n. historical A soldier or officer of the imperial British Army (due to their red or scarlet uniform).
4. n. slang An Australian twenty dollar note, due to its reddish-orange colour.
5. v. To fish for lobsters.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Zoöl.) Any large macrurous crustacean used as food, esp. those of the genus Homarus; as the American lobster (Homarus Americanus), and the European lobster (Homarus vulgaris). The Norwegian lobster (Nephrops Norvegicus) is similar in form. All these have a pair of large unequal claws. The spiny lobsters of more southern waters, belonging to Palinurus, Panulirus, and allied genera, have no large claws. The fresh-water crayfishes are sometimes called lobsters.
2. n. Slang As a term of opprobrium or contempt: A gullible, awkward, bungling, or undesirable person.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. flesh of a lobster
2. n. any of several edible marine crustaceans of the families Homaridae and Nephropsidae and Palinuridae