Tentacle

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Tentacle \Ten"ta*cle\, n. [NL. tentaculum, from L. tentare to
     handle, feel: cf. F. tentacule. See {Tempt}.] (Zool.)
     A more or less elongated process or organ, simple or
     branched, proceeding from the head or cephalic region of
     invertebrate animals, being either an organ of sense,
     prehension, or motion.


     [1913 Webster]
  
     {Tentacle sheath} (Zool.), a sheathlike structure around the
        base of the tentacles of many mollusks.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  tentacle
       n 1: something that acts like a tentacle in its ability to grasp;
            "caught in the tentacles of organized crime"
       2: any of various elongated tactile or prehensile flexible
          organs that occur on the head or near the mouth in many
          animals used for feeling or grasping or locomotion

From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:

  tentacle n. A covert {pseudo}, sense 1. An artificial identity created
     in cyberspace for nefarious and deceptive purposes. The implication is
     that a single person may have multiple tentacles. This term was
     originally floated in some paranoid ravings on the cypherpunks list (see
     {cypherpunk}), and adopted in a spirit of irony by other, saner members.
     It has since shown up, used seriously, in the documentation for some
     remailer software, and is now (1994) widely recognized on the net.