Dictionary

octopuslike en · ADJ

Etymology

From octopus + -like.

Meanings

1. Resembling or characteristic of an octopus, for example in having eight (or many) arms.
   • The divers grappled each other in an octopuslike duel. 1961, Victor Appleton, Tom Swift and the Electronic Hydrolung:
   • A white octopuslike beast is described as something that escapes when the ice thaws to collect "escaped spirits until the next frost"; a hulking presence in the painting, it's rendered even more alarming by the diagram, in which it looms over the silhouetted man. 2004 July 9, Fred Camper, “Living in a Dream World”, in Chicago Reader:
2. Widespread or able (from a central point) to control or manipulate many things.
   • Matsui, the Mitsubishi and other great families which had built up an octopuslike control of industry, banking and trade — would be put out of action. 1948, Henry Robinson Luce, Time, page 26:
   • The agency announced plans yesterday to subdivide the octopuslike system and make the manager of each line responsible for everything on that line, from bunched-together trains to unintelligible public-address announcements. 2007 December 7, James Barron, “Bigger Cars, Flip-Up Seats, Poetry: How Riders Would Run a Subway”, in New York Times:

Forms

Synonyms

octopine (octopus-like) · octopusesque (octopus-like) · octopodal (octopus-like) · octopusine (octopus-like) · octopodic (octopus-like) · octopian (octopus-like) · octopean (octopus-like) · octopodean (octopus-like) · octopusic (octopus-like) · octopoid (octopus-like) · octopodian (octopus-like) · octopusal (octopus-like) · octopusian (octopus-like) · octopal (octopus-like) · octopusial (octopus-like) · octopusical (octopus-like) · octopusish (octopus-like) · octopodial (octopus-like) · octopusy (octopus-like) · octopic (octopus-like) · octopoidal (octopus-like)