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/nˈɔtələs/ Listen

noun

Nautilus n. (pl. E. nautiluses, L. nautili)

(Zool.) 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.

The argonaut; also called paper nautilus. See Argonauta, and Paper nautilus, under Paper.

A variety of diving bell, the lateral as well as vertical motions of which are controlled, by the occupants.

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Etymology of 'Nautilus'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Nautilus" Quotes from Famous Books

... training brig. I underwent my gunnery course in H.M.S. 'Foudroyant,' one of Nelson's flagships, which lay at that time in close proximity to the 'Impregnable,' and I returned every evening to the mother-ship. The two brigs which trained her boys were the 'Nautilus' and the 'Pilot.' I was drafted to the latter for three months. Speaking generally, daily sea trips were taken—that is to say, that after making sail and slipping the buoy, we would leave Plymouth Sound for the Channel, drill all ...

— From Lower Deck to Pulpit • Henry Cowling

... 97), and with some probability, that the "bird" was a nautilus; but the wild traditions concerning the barnacle-goose may perhaps have been the base of the fable. The albatross also was long supposed never to touch land. Possible the barnacle, like the barometz of Tartarean lamb, may be a survivor of the day when the animal and vegetable kingdoms had not ...

— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 6 • Richard F. Burton

... list of honor. No other American has so combined delicacy with the New England humor. We should be poorer by many a smile without "My Aunt" and "The Deacon's Masterpiece." But this is not his entire gift. "The Chambered Nautilus" strikes the chord of noble sentiment sounded in the last stanza of "Thanatopsis" and it will continue to sing in our hearts "As the swift seasons roll." There is in his poems the smile and the sigh of ...

— Selections From American Poetry • Various

... nails until his beak became crossed. He could listen for ever to the tale of St. Cuthbert who was fed by ravens, of St. Martin who cut off his cloak and gave it to a beggar, of St. Anthony who preached to the fishes, of St. Raymond who put up his cowl and floated from Spain to Africa like a nautilus, of St. Nicolas who raised three boys from the dead after they had been killed and cut up and salted in a tub by a cruel man that wanted to eat them, and of that strange insect called a Praying Mantis which alighted upon St. Francis' sleeve and ...

— The Altar Steps • Compton MacKenzie

... Lyra Tyrian Stanmer Plover Renard Seagull Nautilus Swallow Brisei Cockatrice Scorpion Goldfinch Reindeer Hornet Espoir Mutine Nightingale Camden Pike Lapwing Skylark Duke of York Sheldrake Pigeon Spey Lady Mary Pelham Opossum Pandora ...

— A General Plan for a Mail Communication by Steam, Between Great Britain and the Eastern and Western Parts of the World • James MacQueen

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