cuttlefish

From cuttle +‎ fish.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkʌtl̩fɪʃ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkʌt(ə)lfɪʃ/, (common but proscribed) /-təɹ-/, [-ɾ(ə)l]
• Hyphenation: cut‧tle‧fish

cuttlefish (countable and uncountable, plural cuttlefishes or cuttlefish)

1. Any squid-like cephalopods (marine mollusks) of the order Sepiida that have eight arms, two retractable tentacles, and a calcareous internal shell, and can eject a dark ink when threatened.

   Synonyms: cuttle, inkfish, sepia

   Hypernyms: cephalopod < mollusc < animal < organism < creature

   Hyponym: flamboyant cuttlefish

   Coordinate terms: octopus, squid, nautilus

   • 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 72:

     Cuttle-fish, spiced oysters, sea hedge-hogs, and lobsters were among the ingredients of love-potions that reputed thaumaturgist Apuleius [...] was accused of have prepared in order to win the love of a widow.

   • 2017 August 9, Mark Carnall, “Why do cephalopods produce ink? And what's ink made of, anyway?”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     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.