noun
( plural venus's-flower-baskets )
Usage: usually capitalized V
: a delicate tubular or cornucopia-shaped hexactinellid sponge (genus Euplectella ) native to the East Indies and the eastern coast of Asia and having a skeleton of glassy transparent siliceous fibers interwoven into a firm network with long slender divergent anchoring fibers at the base by means of which the sponge stands erect in the soft mud at the bottom of the sea