sb. pl. Zool. [mod.L., f. Gr. κεφαλή head + πούς (ποδ-) foot. For the sing. cephalopod or cephalopodan is used.]

1

  The most highly organized class of Mollusca, characterized by a distinct head with ‘arms’ or tentacles attached to it; comprising Cuttle-fishes, the Nautilus, etc., and numerous fossil species.

2

1802.  Med. Jrnl., VIII. 372. The cuttle fish, one of the cephalopoda.

3

1851.  Richardson, Geol., viii. 230. The Cephalopoda have … their locomotive organs arranged round the head, in the form of eight or more arms or tentacula.

4

  Hence Cephalopodal, Cephalopodic adjs. = next.; Cephalopodan a., in same sense; sb. = CEPHALOPOD.

5

1885.  A. Stewart, ’Twixt Ben Nevis & Glencoe, iii. 25. Safely arrived at the years of cephalopodal discretion.

6

1854.  Huxley, in Woodward, Mollusca (1856), 447. It takes on the cephalopodic form.

7

1859.  Darwin, Orig. Spec., xiv. (1872), 390. The cephalopodic character.

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