mantis shrimp

American

noun

any stomatopod crustacean having a pair of appendages modified for grasping prey and resembling those of a mantis.

mantis shrimp British

noun

any of various burrowing marine shrimplike crustaceans of the order Stomatopoda that have a pair of large grasping appendages: subclass Malacostraca See also squilla

"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

Etymology

Origin of mantis shrimp

First recorded in 1870–75

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.

"In mantis shrimp competitors exchange bullet-like hits on each other's armored tail plates, or telsons, during fights over shelters," Green explained.

From Science Daily • May 10, 2024

By comparing bar lengths in 36 species with known relationships on the mantis shrimp family tree, they showed the shortest bar often changed as a new species evolved.

From Science Magazine • Sep. 22, 2022

Yong moves beyond the known unknowns — just how does a mantis shrimp, with its complex eyes, see?

From Seattle Times • Jul. 6, 2022

I personally was fascinated with the mantis shrimp.

From Slate • Jun. 21, 2022

A foot-long, Technicolor mantis shrimp waved its claws on a coral pinnacle.

From Washington Post • Mar. 21, 2019

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023