octopusnoun/ˈɒktəpʊs/

• 1

  Any of several marine molluscs of the order Octopoda, having no internal or external protective shell or bone (unlike the nautilus, squid and cuttlefish) and eight arms each covered with suckers.

  • Even octopuses without stylets almost certainly retain the molecular machinery necessary to build them.
  • In terms of diversity, cephalopods include the egg case making argonauts, shelled nautiluses, venomous blue-ringed octopuses and enigmatic giants like the giant and colossal squid. […] Fossilised ink sacs are more conclusively known from the extinct “soft-bodied” Coleoidea cephalopods in groups Belemitida (including belemnites with bullet-like internal skeletons commonly found as fossils) and Phragmoteuthida as well as from squid, octopus and cuttlefish fossils.
• 2

  A mollusc from genus Octopus.

• 3

  The flesh of these marine molluscs eaten as food.

• 4

  An organization that has many powerful branches controlled from the centre.

• 5

  informalAmerican-footballball-gamesfootballAn instance of a player scoring a touchdown immediately followed by a successful two-point conversion, resulting in a total score of eight points.

• 6

  divinghobbieslifestyleA safety device allowing divers to share an air supply in an emergency.

octopusverb/ˈɒktəpʊs/

• 1

  To put (or attempt to put) one's fingers, hands or arms in many things or places at roughly the same time.

  • He rises up on his wasted legs, the healer's hands octopussed on his head.
  • A skinny, sauced-looking gent in shorts and baseball cap wandered in through the door, his arms octopussing no less than three pre-teen girls.
• 2

  To spread out in long arms or legs in many directions.

  • The bug-eyed press octopussed to their respective word processors.
  • Dirt roads octopussed into the interior, where there were more dried mud and shrivelled crops.
• 3

  To plug a large number of devices into a single electric outlet.

  • If they're all for a single indoor tree, caution against "octopusing" of cords from other cords, and the use of a number of cords in a single receptacle.
  • By now, the reservation had electricity so THAT had to be octopussed out to the trailers too.
• 4

  To grow in use vastly beyond what was originally intended.

  • The interlocking business organizations have octopussed beyond all imagining in recent years; they are intermingled with citizens' union-smashing committees and women's strikebreaking “patriotic” groups, such as Neutral Thousands and Women of the Pacific.
  • The busy man will do two things at once in his office; and with a little forethought he can practise what psychologist Freeman calls "brain octopussing" at home, too.
• 5

  To hunt and catch octopuses.

  • The sport could be called octopusing or octopus hunting— and any number may play. Supposing you catch an octopus, what do you have?
  • CRABBING AND OCTOPUSSING: Use the same method whether you skindive for crabs and octopi or gather them intertidally.
• 6

  To behave like an octopus.

  • Night fell especially dark and cold for August, inky blackness tendrilling in, octopussing even the street lamps, now dim with vague form.
  • “Strangled in the middle of the night by one of Molly's eight legs.” “Mo-om!” Molly kicked Robin in the shins. “Owww!” Robin lunged against the door. “I've been octopused!”