octopuslike

English

Etymology

octopus +‎ -like

Adjective

octopuslike (comparative more octopuslike, superlative most octopuslike)

1. Resembling or characteristic of an octopus, for example in having eight (or many) arms.
   • 1961, Victor Appleton, Tom Swift and the Electronic Hydrolung‎^[1]:

     The divers grappled each other in an octopuslike duel.

   • 2004 July 9, Fred Camper, “Living in a Dream World”, in Chicago Reader‎^[2]:

     A white octopuslike beast is described as something that escapes when the ice thaws to collect "escaped spirits until the next frost"; a hulking presence in the painting, it's rendered even more alarming by the diagram, in which it looms over the silhouetted man.

2. Widespread or able (from a central point) to control or manipulate many things.
   • 1948, Henry Robinson Luce, Time, page 26:

     Matsui, the Mitsubishi and other great families which had built up an octopuslike control of industry, banking and trade — would be put out of action.

   • 2007 December 7, James Barron, “Bigger Cars, Flip-Up Seats, Poetry: How Riders Would Run a Subway”, in New York Times‎^[3]:

     The agency announced plans yesterday to subdivide the octopuslike system and make the manager of each line responsible for everything on that line, from bunched-together trains to unintelligible public-address announcements.

Synonyms

• (octopus-like): octopal (rare), octopean, octopian (rare), octopic (rare), octopine, octopodal, octopodean, octopodial, octopodian, octopodic, octopoid, octopoidal, octopusal (rare), octopusesque (rare), octopusial (rare), octopusian (rare), octopusic (rare), octopusish (rare), octopusy (rare)