MOLLUSK

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does mollusk mean? 

• MOLLUSK (noun)
  The noun MOLLUSK has 1 sense:

1. invertebrate having a soft unsegmented body usually enclosed in a shell

  Familiarity information: MOLLUSK used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MOLLUSK (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Invertebrate having a soft unsegmented body usually enclosed in a shell

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

mollusc; mollusk; shellfish

Hypernyms ("mollusk" is a kind of...):

invertebrate (any animal lacking a backbone or notochord; the term is not used as a scientific classification)

Meronyms (parts of "mollusk"):

carapace; cuticle; shell; shield (hard outer covering or case of certain organisms such as arthropods and turtles)

shellfish (meat of edible aquatic invertebrate with a shell (especially a mollusk or crustacean))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "mollusk"):

scaphopod (burrowing marine mollusk)

gastropod; univalve (a class of mollusks typically having a one-piece coiled shell and flattened muscular foot with a head bearing stalked eyes)

chiton; coat-of-mail shell; polyplacophore; sea cradle (primitive elongated bilaterally symmetrical marine mollusk having a mantle covered with eight calcareous plates)

bivalve; lamellibranch; pelecypod (marine or freshwater mollusks having a soft body with platelike gills enclosed within two shells hinged together)

cephalopod; cephalopod mollusk (marine mollusk characterized by well-developed head and eyes and sucker-bearing tentacles)

Holonyms ("mollusk" is a member of...):

Mollusca; phylum Mollusca (gastropods; bivalves; cephalopods; chitons)

 Context examples 

Class of mollusks that includes snails.

(Gastropods, NOAA Paleoclimate Glossary)

A depsipeptide originally isolated from the marine mollusk Dolabella auricularia with potential antineoplastic activity.

(Dolastatin 15, NCI Thesaurus)

A substance originally isolated from the marine mollusk Dolabella auricularia with potential neoplastic activity.

(Dolastatin 9, NCI Thesaurus)

The absorption alters the water's chemistry, lowering its pH and reducing the amount of available carbonate, which organisms such as corals and pteropods (mollusks) use to construct their calcium carbonate shells.

(Marine organisms in Southern Ocean will face shallower zone for life, National Science Foundation)

A pentapeptide originally isolated from the marine mollusk Dolabella auricularia with potential antineoplastic activity.

(Dolastatin 10, NCI Thesaurus)

KLH, a natural protein isolated from the marine mollusk keyhole limpet, is an immunostimulant carrier protein.

(KLH-FITC, NCI Thesaurus)

Any chemical substance, biological agent or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pest, including insects, plant pathogens, weeds, mollusks, birds, mammals, fish, nematodes (roundworms) and microbes that compete with humans for food, destroy property, spread or are a vector for disease or are a nuisance.

(Pesticide, NCI Thesaurus)

Any of a class of natural peptides originally isolated from the marine mollusk Dolabella auricularia that bind to tubulin at the vinca/peptide region, thereby inhibiting microtubule assembly and leading to cell cycle arrest and/or apoptosis.

(Dolastatin Compound, NCI Thesaurus)

The scientific celebrities, forgetting their mollusks and glacial periods, gossiped about art, while devoting themselves to oysters and ices with characteristic energy; the young musician, who was charming the city like a second Orpheus, talked horses; and the specimen of the British nobility present happened to be the most ordinary man of the party.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)