sea cucumber

American  

noun

1. any echinoderm of the class Holothuroidea, having a long, leathery body with tentacles around the anterior end.

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sea cucumber British  

noun

1. any echinoderm of the class Holothuroidea, having an elongated body covered with a leathery skin and bearing a cluster of tentacles at the oral end. They usually creep on the sea bed or burrow in sand

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sea cucumber Scientific  

1. See holothurian

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Etymology

Origin of sea cucumber

First recorded in 1595–1605

Example Sentences

There's a bone-white lobster, suctioned up for examination at the surface, and a horned sea cucumber whose mast-like spikes collapse into black spaghetti when it arrives on the ship.

From Barron's • Jan. 26, 2026

Some ingredients commonly found in Chinese fine dining include qi-boosting gelatinous fish maw, collagen-rich bird’s nest and nutrient-dense sea cucumber.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 18, 2025

But the brown sea cucumber — Isostichopus fuscus — is overfished, and that’s cause for regulations around their harvest.

From Seattle Times • Sep. 1, 2023

And down in the sediment, starfish and brittle stars were feeling their way across the bottom with their fives arms, no doubt bumping into the occasional passing sea urchin or sea cucumber.

From BBC • Jul. 21, 2021

And where would a cowboy in the middle of the desert get a sea cucumber from anyway?

From "Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus" by Dusti Bowling