octopusal

English

Etymology

octopus +‎ -al

Adjective

octopusal (comparative more octopusal, superlative most octopusal)

1. Octopuslike.
   • 1932, The Pan-American geologist:

     Instead of being so ruthless and octopusal as most of us are so thoughtlessly prone to characterize such corporation it merely worships at the shrine of that fair and gracious goddess, Science, […]

   • 1974, Madison Area Guide:

     For 20 years, the Kollege Klub was practically on the doorstep of the Memorial Library. Then the octopusal arms of a creeping university encircled the area. So in November, 1972, the KK relocated […]

   • 1998, Transafrican Journal of History:

     The result of the series of merger of firms in this region culminated in the solution of the octopusal United Africa Company (UAC) in 1933.

   • 2000, David L. Lewis, W. E. B. Du Bois, 1919-1963: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, Macmillan, →ISBN, page 194:

     Drawing lines between the red spots on the racial map, the editor connected them to the new Ku Klux Klan, whose octopusal spread across the nation he detailed in the article out of his own extensive travels.

   • 2001, John Tomasi, Liberalism Beyond Justice: Citizens, Society, and the Boundaries of Political Theory, Princeton University Press, →ISBN, page 114:

     High medievalism had the Church, with its octopusal canon law, cashing out all the most interesting questions of life in terms of duties to Christendom or God.

   • 2008, Jeffrey Mccarthy, Contact: Mountain Climbing And Environmental Thinking:

     The concept of actually climbing this shimmering white behemoth of groaning, octopusal glaciers was so beyond the imagination of most humans that no one even took him up on the offer for fifteen years.

Synonyms

• see list in octopuslike