Definition of "actinia" []

• A sea anemone or a related animal. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "He postulated as the far-back ancestor of Vertebrates, "an actinia-like, vermiform being, elongated in the direction of the mouth-slit" (p. 410, 1906), and derived the central nervous system from the circum-oral ring of this primitive form, the notochord from its stomodæum, and the coelom from the peripheral parts of the gastric cavity (p. 169, 1909)."
• "Actinia Bay, from the large number of actinia which the dredge brought up there."
• "On the afternoon following the expedition to Bickleypool, Louis was seated, with an earthenware pan before him, coaxing an actinia with raw beef to expand her blossom, to be copied for Miss Faithfull."