— polypous , adj.
/pol"ip/ , n.
1. Zool.
a. a sedentary type of animal form characterized by a more or less fixed base, columnar body, and free end with mouth and tentacles, esp. as applied to coelenterates.
b. an individual zooid of a compound or colonial organism.
2. Pathol. a projecting growth from a mucous surface, as of the nose, being either a tumor or a hypertrophy of the mucous membrane.
[ 1350-1400; ME polip, short for polipus nasal tumor (later, also cephalopod, now obs.) polypus poulýpous octopus, nasal tumor (Attic polýpous, gen. polýpodos; see POLY-, -POD) ]