crustacean

noun crus·ta·cean \ ˌkrə-ˈstā-shən \

Updated on: 16 May 2018

Definition of crustacean

: any of a large class (Crustacea) of mostly aquatic mandibulate arthropods that have a chitinous or calcareous and chitinous exoskeleton, a pair of often much modified appendages on each segment, and two pairs of antennae and that include the lobsters, shrimp, crabs, wood lice, water fleas, and barnacles

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crustacean

adjective

See crustacean defined for English-language learners

See crustacean defined for kids

Recent Examples of crustacean from the Web

For the week leading up to it, the entire Baltimore area becomes happily Preakness-obsessed: Heck, even giant balloons and the Chesapeake Bay’s favorite crustaceans get in on the act.

— chris kaltenbach, baltimoresun.com, "8 events to get you primed for Preakness 2018," 9 May 2018
The family started laying traps last week and is hoping to fish the crustacean into oblivion by the end of the year—and make a profit doing it.

— william boston, WSJ, "Berlin Puts Out a Contract on Invasive Crawfish," 8 May 2018
Chef de cuisine William Jimenez dusts plump crustaceans with cumin and espelette pepper, then cooks them on a wood fire grill in the open kitchen.

— BostonGlobe.com, "Shrimp toast and albariño with an unexpected view," 24 Apr. 2018
Swarms of shorebirds, some residents but many of them migrants on their spring migration, worked the mud flats exposed by the falling tide, probing for marine worms or stranded fish and crustaceans.

— shannon tompkins, Houston Chronicle, "Bay food chain comes to life with tide change," 14 Apr. 2018
That’s in addition to some of the earliest flowering plants, plus assorted pine, cypress and gingko trees, algae, mosses and ferns, snails, clams, crustaceans, insects, spiders and almost endlessly onward.

— stefen chow, Smithsonian, "The Great Chinese Dinosaur Boom," 19 Apr. 2018
The massive North Atlantic right whale’s plates have evolved to filter and collect prey less than a tenth of an inch long — tiny invertebrate crustaceans called copepods.

— kathryn miles, BostonGlobe.com, "Can anyone save the North Atlantic right whale?," 11 Apr. 2018
Such unusual behaviors show how snakes have evolved creative ways to hunt crustaceans, a most unusual prey item with a hard outer body and the ability to fight back.

— douglas main, National Geographic, "This Snake Rips Its Prey Into Pieces, Instead of Swallowing it Whole," 6 Apr. 2018
In 2011, the amount of crustaceans caught was 60% higher than in 1990—a greater increase than for any other type of seafood—the researchers report today in Nature Climate Change.

— erik stokstad, Science | AAAS, "Our growing taste for shrimp is bad news for climate change," 2 Apr. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'crustacean.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of crustacean

1835

in the meaning defined above

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CRUSTACEAN Defined for English Language Learners

crustacean

noun

Definition of crustacean for English Language Learners

: a type of animal (such as a crab or lobster) that has several pairs of legs and a body made up of sections that are covered in a hard outer shell

CRUSTACEAN Defined for Kids

crustacean

noun crus·ta·cean \ ˌkrəs-ˈtā-shən \

Definition of crustacean for Students

: any of a large group of mostly water animals (as crabs, lobsters, and shrimps) with a body made of segments, a tough outer shell, two pairs of antennae, and limbs that are jointed