a. and sb. Zool. [f. mod.L. Turbellāria, neuter pl. (f. L. turbella a little crowd, a bustle, stir, dim. of turba crowd) + -AN.] a. adj. Of or belonging to the Turbellaria, a class of worms inhabiting fresh or salt water or damp earth, having the body covered with vibratile cilia producing minute whirls in the water.
b. sb. A worm of this class; a whirl-worm.
1879. E. P. Wright, Anim. Life, 580. Rhynchocœla. These are the flat worms. To one section thereof would belong the Turbellarian and Nemertean worms.
1883. Science, I. 433/1. The form and armature of the tail resemble those of many turbellarians.
So Turbellariform a., having the form of a turbellarian.
1877. Huxley, Anat. Inv. Anim., xii. 675. The Tunicate Pharyngopneusta, with their caudate larvæ, may be supposed to stand in the same relation to the Turbellariform Pharyngopneusta, as the Trematoda, with their cercariform larvæ, to the Turbellaria.
