Jump to:

• dead-man's fingers
  dead-man's fingers

  noun

  any of various fungi, sponges, plant roots, animal parts, etc., having fingerlike projections and a pale or dull color, as the gray-black woodland fungus Xylaria polymorpha or the whitish spongy gills of a food crab.
• dead man's fingers
  dead man's fingers

  noun

  (functioning as singular) a soft coral, Alcyonium digitatum, with long finger-like polyps

dead-man's fingers

American  

[ded-manz, -muhnz] / ˈdɛdˌmænz, -mənz /

noun

1. any of various fungi, sponges, plant roots, animal parts, etc., having fingerlike projections and a pale or dull color, as the gray-black woodland fungus Xylaria polymorpha or the whitish spongy gills of a food crab.

---

dead man's fingers British  

noun

1. (functioning as singular) a soft coral, Alcyonium digitatum, with long finger-like polyps

---

Etymology

Origin of dead-man's fingers

First recorded in 1595–1605