1. a slender, flexible limb or appendage in an animal, especially around the mouth of an invertebrate, used for grasping or moving about, or bearing sense organs.
▪ (in a plant) a tendril or a sensitive glandular hair.
▪ something resembling a tentacle in shape or flexibility: "trailing tentacles of vapor"
▪ an insidious spread of influence and control:"the Party's tentacles reached into every nook and cranny of people's lives"
Word Originmid 18th century: anglicized from modern Latin tentaculum, from Latin tentare, temptare ‘to feel, try’.
