Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use octopus in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb

Octopus means 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. Example: “Who would win in a fight between an octopus and a dolphin?”

Examples of octopus by meaning

nounAny of several marine molluscs of the order Octopoda, having no internal or external protective shell or bone (unlike...

  • Even octopuses without stylets almost certainly retain the molecular machinery necessary to build them.2017, Danna Staaf, Squid Empire, ForeEdge, →ISBN, page 120
  • In one photograph, a teenaged Leah crouches by a tall cylindrical tank containing what she identified to me as a giant Pacific octopus named Pamela.2022, Julia Armfield, Our Wives Under the Sea, Picador, page 67

verbTo 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.1994, Susan Ketchin, The Christ-haunted Landscape
  • 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.2006, Stuart Lloyd, Gone Troppo: Hot Babes, Warm Weather, Cold Beer. Paradise!
  • I took off my shirt, standing in swim trunks, embarrassed of my tour body, my hands octopussing around the ashamed drink tickets of my gut.2018, Derrick C. Brown, Hello. It Doesn't Matter.

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

  • The bug-eyed press octopussed to their respective word processors.1995, Donald A. Weatherby, The Star-Spangled Specter, page 105
  • Dirt roads octopussed into the interior, where there were more dried mud and shrivelled crops.1997, The Unesco Courier - Volume 50, Issues 1-6, page 33
  • He had attached three more on so now there were seven legs octopussing out from underneath the chair.2002, Susan Goyette, Lures: A Novel, page 224

verbTo 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.1963, Hardware Age - Volume 203, Issues 7-10, page 88
  • By now, the reservation had electricity so THAT had to be octopussed out to the trailers too.1985, Ted C. Williams, The Reservation, page 206
  • The three electrical outlets I could see—though located six feet above the ground, beyond all their little reaches—were octopussed with what looked like more plugs than the circuits could handle.2010, Arthur Nersesian, Mesopotamia, page 53

verbTo 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.1937, Fight Against War and Fascism - Volumes 5-6, page 34
  • 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.1953, Dun's Review and Modern Industry, volume 62, August-December 1953, page 256
  • The course of study should be rooted in a survey of the needs of the community and not "octopussed" from swivel chair courses of study prepared for other areas.1978, William Edward Field, A Review of the Undergraduate Program in Agricultural Education at the University of Minnesota, 1977, page 349

verbTo hunt and catch octopuses.

  • The sport could be called octopusing or octopus hunting— and any number may play.1956, Travel - Volume 105, page 46
  • CRABBING AND OCTOPUSSING: Use the same method whether you skindive for crabs and octopi or gather them intertidally.1977, Peter Howorth, Foraging Along the California Coast, Capra Press, →ISBN, page 97
  • People spent the days before the visit fishing, octopusing, digging taro, cooking, and cleaning public spaces.1993, Poyer Lin, NGATIK MASSACRE PB, page 163

verbTo 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.1995, Donald A. Weatherby, The Star-Spangled Specter, page 77

More sentences with octopus

  • Who would win in a fight between an octopus and a dolphin?From the entry win
  • Octopuses and squids are examples of animals that have blue blood.From the entry blue blood
  • The eight-tentacled octopus swam through the water.From the entry tentacled
  • Unlike other octopus species, which are normally solitary, the larger Pacific striped octopus has been reported as forming groups of up to 40 individuals.From the entry larger Pacific striped octopus
  • Up at the cinema Campbell Cameron had been all slithering hands, like a dirty octopus.2020, Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain, page 58. From the entry winch
  • Clyde, our resident giant Pacific octopus, was suckering his way across the front panel.2017, Elizabeth Hand, Bradford Morrow, Other Aliens. From the entry sucker
  • Ursula’s form is a cecaelia, a half human and half octopus.2015, Harpa Omarsdottir, “Ursula”, in Disney Villains Hairstyles & Looks, Edda Publishing USA LLC, →ISBN, page 6. From the entry cecaelia
  • Based on the number of teeth ammonites had—nine—it's believed that their closest living kin are octopuses.2014, Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, Picador, →ISBN, page 84. From the entry kin
  • The Siegler brothers would buy potatoes so old they looked like an octopus.2012, Bob Vargovcik, Bayonne Boy, page 19. From the entry eye
  • Entangled in each other like doting octopi, sweethearts are seizing the day, the hour, the magic minute.2009, Keith Spicer, Paris Passions: Watching the French Being Brilliant and Bizarre, BookSurge, →ISBN, page 43. From the entry octopi
  • You might opt for a heaping tower composed of fried oysters, coco-flavored shrimp, fried octopus, and calamari.2007, Darwin Porter, Danforth Prince, Frommer's Caribbean 2008, →ISBN, page 468. From the entry coco
  • From left; Caulophryne jordani Fanfin seadevil, Marrus Orthocanna and Grimpoteuthis, or "Dumbo octopus."2007 May 22, William J. Broad, “Mysteries to Behold in the Dark Down Deep: Seadevils and Species Unknown”, in New York Times. From the entry seadevil
  • If an octopus divided the world into the octopian and everything else, would that make sense?2004, Erica Fudge, Renaissance Beasts, page 179. From the entry octopian
  • Octopus clambered about from hole to hole and startled sweep blurred away as we passed.1993, Tim Winton, Land's Edge, Picador, published 2014, page 28. From the entry sweep
  • The lusca, he said, was a terrible creature, like a monstrous octopus or cuttlefish.1970, National Geographic. From the entry lusca
  • I am now the octopus, mucus, held together by soft moist membrane, suckering everywhere.1961, Olympia, numbers 1-4, page 83. From the entry sucker
  • Can you imagine that Doc living all by himself here, with snakes and starfish and octopusses?1956, Richard Rodgers; Oscar, II Hammerstein, Pipe Dream, page 38. From the entry octopusses
  • The devilfishes, or octopuses, vary from 2 inches to 28 feet in spread.1951, Tracy I. Storer, General Zoology, New York, N.Y.; Toronto, ON; London: McGraw Hill, page 435. From the entry devilfish
  • “They are called triakis, and the octopus people?2022, C.A.Watts, Mattara (The Ventura Series), Ballads & Bards Bookhouse, →ISBN. From the entry cecaelia
  • Meanwhile, a rare octopus stinkhorn or devil's fingertips (Clathus archeri, below right) has popped up at RHS Garden Rosemoor in Devon.2019 October 20, anonymous author, “Tread softly, for you tread on my mushrooms”, in Country Life, Bath, England, page 25. From the entry octopus stinkhorn
  • Giant Pacific octopuses are semelparous, meaning they reproduce only once.2018 April 29, Killian Fox, The Observer. From the entry giant Pacific octopus
  • Did you know that octopuses have three hearts?2018 December 6, “This creature-filled anthology is a great Christmas present for kids”, in The Independent, London: Independent News &…. From the entry large toenail

Meaning of octopus

  1. noun 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.
  2. noun A mollusc from genus Octopus.
  3. noun The flesh of these marine molluscs eaten as food.

Full definition of octopus

Questions about octopus in a sentence

How do you use octopus in a sentence?
Octopus is used as a noun and verb. For example: “Who would win in a fight between an octopus and a dolphin?”
What is a short sentence with octopus?
“The eight-tentacled octopus swam through the water.”
What does octopus mean?
Octopus means 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.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: octopus (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use octopus in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/octopus. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.