limpet
/ˈlɪmpɪt
/noun
1A marine mollusc which has a shallow conical shell and a broad muscular foot, found clinging tightly to rocks.
- Patellidae, Fissurellidae (the keyhole limpets), and other families, class Gastropoda: numerous species, including the common limpet (Patella vulgata).
- Barnacles are crustaceans like crabs and shrimps but, because of their appearance, until the 19th century they were thought to be molluscs like limpets and whelks.
- Brains of limpets and abalones are much simpler than brains of garden snails and slugs in histological differentiation.
1.1Used in comparisons to refer to people and things that cling tightly: the couples on the floor were clinging to each other like limpets
Origin
Old English lempedu, from medieval Latin lampreda 'limpet, lamprey'.
- colourfield
- colour-field painting
- colour film
- colour filter
- colour force
- colourful
- colourfully
- colourfulness
- colour gravure
- colour harmony
- colour hearer
- colour hearing
- colourific
- colourimetrical
- colourimetrically
- colourimetrist
- colour index
- colouring
- colouring book
- colouring in
- colouring matter
- colouring wheel
- colourism
- colourist
- colouristic