Definition

Noun: 1. A type of marine snail: A small sea creature (a gastropod mollusk) with a low, cone-shaped shell. It is known for clinging very tightly to rocks and other hard surfaces in coastal areas. 2. A person or thing that clings persistently: (Figurative) Someone who refuses to let go or leave, often in an annoying or tenacious way.

Usage and Examples

• Noun (literal, marine animal):
  • We saw limpets clinging to the rocks as the tide went out.
  • The limpet uses a powerful muscular foot to create a strong suction on the surface.
• Noun (figurative, a person):
  • Once he starts talking, he's a limpet; it's impossible to get away from him.
  • The child was a limpet on her mother's leg during the first day of school.

Advanced Usage

• Stick/cling like a limpet: An idiom meaning to hold on to someone or something very tightly and persistently.
  • The memory of that day clings to me like a limpet.
  • The reporter stuck to the politician like a limpet, asking difficult questions.

Variants and Related Words

• Limpet mine: A type of explosive device designed to be attached magnetically or with suction to the hull of a ship.

Synonyms

• (For the animal) Gastropod, mollusk, shellfish.
• (For the figurative meaning) Clinger, leech, barnacle (informal).

Related Idioms

• Stick/cling like a limpet: As described in Advanced Usage.

Noun

1. any of various usually marine gastropods with low conical shells; found clinging to rocks in littoral areas
2. mollusk with a low conical shell