octopod

plural octopods · alternative uncommon octopode · alternative octoped · alternative octopede

1. Any animal with eight feet or foot-like parts.
2. Any cephalopod molluscs of the order Octopoda.
3. A railway locomotive with eight wheels.

   … Virginia saw the big octopod engine clamoring up the grade, …

   1905, Francis Lynde, “VII The Majesty of the Law”, in A Fool for Love, Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →LCCN, page 115

alternative uncommon octopode · alternative octoped · alternative octopede

1. not comparableHaving eight feet or foot-like parts.

   The Arachnidans (Arachnida, Spiders, Scorpions, &c.), are octopod and apterous; […]

   1835–1836, Richard Owen, “Articulata”, in Robert B[entley] Todd, editor, The Cyclopædia of Anatomy and Physiology, volume I (A–Dea), London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, published 1859, →OCLC, page 246, column 1

   2 more examples

   [T]he females through five stages, indicated as follows:—1. The egg, on issuing from which the animal has the form of 2. A hexapod larva, followed by the stage of 3. Octopod nymphæ without sexual organs.

   1868 July, C. Robin, “On the Avicolar Sarcoptidæ, and on the Metamorphoses of the Acarina”, in Cardale C[ardale] Babington et al., editors, The Annals and Magazine of Natural History, […], volume II (Fourth Series), number 7, London: […] Taylor and Francis. […], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 78

   A leathery expat told me, with an unexpected quaver in his voice, of the spider that traps birds merely in order to decorate its web with their feathers, a kind of octopod Jeffrey Dahmer.

   2001 February 26, Stephen Smith, “A rumble in the jungle”, in New Statesman, London: New Statesman Ltd, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 04 Feb 2026, page 30, column 1

   Synonyms: octopodal, octopodian, octopodous

2. not comparableOf or relating to the order Octopoda of cephalopod molluscs; octopoid.

   The octopod genus Amphitretus has thus far been known only through a single specimen collected by the “Challenger” and described by [William Evans] Hoyle.

   1903, “Notes”, in The American Naturalist […], volume XXXVII, Boston, Mass.: Ginn & Company, […] The Athenæum Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 138

   2 more examples

   The composer, like his publisher, faces an octopod monopoly. If he expects his songs to be plugged by the new agencies of publicity he will have to join those agencies.

   1930, Isaac Goldberg, “Bye, Bye, Theme Song”, in Tin Pan Alley: A Chronicle of the American Popular Music Racket, New York, N.Y.: John Day Company, →OCLC, page 314

   The three remaining coleoid orders, the Teuthoidea, the Vampyromorpha and the Octopodida include all the remaining living cephalopods, comprising 29 teuthoid or squid families, one vampyromorph family and 12 octopod families.

   1975 July 4, M. R. Clarke, John E. Fitch, “First fossil records of cephalopod statoliths”, in David Davies, editor, Nature, volume 257, number 5525, London: Macmillan Journals, published 2 October 1975, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 380, column 2

   Synonyms: octopodan