cuttlebone

[ kuht-l-bohn ]

noun
  1. the calcareous internal shell of cuttlefishes, used to make powder for polishing and fed to canaries and other pet birds to supply their diet with lime.

Origin of cuttlebone

1
First recorded in 1805–15; cuttle(fish) + bone

Words Nearby cuttlebone

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use cuttlebone in a sentence

  • There were crushed pieces of calcined material that looked like cuttlebone.

    Stamped Caution | Raymond Zinke Gallun
  • Of such is the cuttlebone of commerce, which is a calcareous leaf-like body obtained from Sepia, the cuttlefish.

    The Sea-beach at Ebb-tide | Augusta Foote Arnold

British Dictionary definitions for cuttlebone

cuttlebone

/ (ˈkʌtəlˌbəʊn) /


noun
  1. the internal calcareous shell of the cuttlefish, used as a mineral supplement to the diet of cage-birds and as a polishing agent

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012