Hypertext Webster Gateway: "nautilus"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Nautilus \Nau"ti*lus\, n.; pl. E. {Nautiluses}, L. {Nautili}.
[L., fr. gr. nayti`los a seaman, sailor, a kind of shellfish
which was supposed to be furnished with a membrane which
served as a sail; fr. nay^s ship. See {Nave} of a church.]
1. (Zo["o]l.) The only existing genus of tetrabranchiate
cephalopods. About four species are found living in the
tropical Pacific, but many other species are found fossil.
The shell is spiral, symmetrical, and chambered, or
divided into several cavities by simple curved partitions,
which are traversed and connected together by a continuous
and nearly central tube or siphuncle. See
{Tetrabranchiata}.
Note: The head of the animal bears numerous simple tapered
arms, or tentacles, arranged in groups, but not
furnished with suckers. The siphon, unlike, that of
ordinary cephalopods, is not a closed tube, and is not
used as a locomotive organ, but merely serves to
conduct water to and from the gill cavity, which
contains two pairs of gills. The animal occupies only
the outer chamber of the shell; the others are filled
with gas. It creeps over the bottom of the sea, not
coming to the surface to swim or sail, as was formerly
imagined.
2. The argonaut; -- also called {paper nautilus}. See
{Argonauta}, and {Paper nautilus}, under {Paper}.
3. A variety of diving bell, the lateral as well as vertical
motions of which are controlled, by the occupants.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
nautilus
n 1: a submarine that is propelled by nuclear power [syn: {nuclear
submarine}, {nuclear-powered submarine}]
2: cephalopod mollusk of warm seas whose females have delicate
papery spiral shells [syn: {paper nautilus}, {Argonauta
argo}]
3: cephalopod of the Indian and Pacific oceans having a spiral
shell with pale pearly partitions [syn: {chambered
nautilus}, {pearly nautilus}]
Additional Hypertext Webster Gateway Lookup
Gateway by dict@stokkie.net
stock only wrote the gateway and does not have any control over the contents;
see the Webster Gateway FAQ,
and also the Back-end/database links and credits.