MEANING
1. A small marine mollusk with a low, cone-shaped shell that grips tightly to rocks.
2. A person or thing that clings persistently to someone or something and is difficult to detach.
3. An explosive device designed to attach magnetically to a metal surface, especially a ship’s hull.
Use it for
describing shell-covered animals on coastal rocks; showing a creature resisting removal; distinguishing a grazing sea snail from a barnacleSeparates the rock-clinging mollusk from figurative clinging and the established ship-attachment device meaning. Writing functions: Clinging shore animal / Persistent attachment.
Words that belong together
- limpets on rocks
- a limpet shell
- cling like a limpet
On the page
Limpets dotted the rocks exposed by the falling tide.
The limpet held so firmly that she left it undisturbed.
At every gathering, the self-appointed adviser attached himself to her like a limpet.
He called the unwanted follower a limpet and immediately regretted it.
The wartime account referred to the attached device simply as a limpet.
Word forms
- Base
- limpet
Usage notes
Countable noun: limpet, limpets. The figurative person sense is informal; the explosive sense is technical. Register: neutral. Commonness: moderately common (dictionary-informed qualitative editorial estimate; not a measured frequency).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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