claspers
Britishplural noun
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a paired organ of male insects, used to clasp the female during copulation
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a paired organ of male sharks and related fish, used to assist the transfer of spermatozoa into the body of the female during copulation
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Spotted ratfish also use pelvic claspers for mating, similar to many other cartilaginous fish.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2025
But apart from the denticles on their pelvic claspers, spotted ratfish are largely smooth-skinned.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2025
They use gripping appendages, called claspers, to hook themselves onto a female’s spines, giving males an inside track to fertilize the female’s eggs as soon as she releases them from a compartment in her head.
From New York Times ● May 6, 2022
From those they gathered more evidence of male antiarchs with their claspers still attached.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 19, 2014
But if your caterpillar is one of the Geometers, with only two, or perhaps three, pairs of claspers, the mode of procedure is very different.
From Butterflies and Moths (British) by William S. Furneaux
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
