- any octopod of the genus Octopus, having a soft, oval body and eight sucker-bearing arms, living mostly at the bottom of the sea.
- something likened to an octopus, as an organization with many forms of far-reaching influence or control.
- any cephalopod mollusc of the genera Octopus, Eledone, etc, having a soft oval body with eight long suckered tentacles and occurring at the sea bottom: order Octopoda (octopods)
- a powerful influential organization with far-reaching effects, esp harmful ones
- another name for spider (def. 8)
