Tentacle

Something that acts like a tentacle in its ability to grasp; caught in the tentacles of organized crime.Any of various elongated tactile or prehensile flexible organs that occur on the head or near the mouth in many animals used for feeling or grasping or locomotion.A long outreaching organism common in marine animals that can detect the sense of touch and also act as a means of attaching the organism to a particular object, such as its prey.tentacle
(Science: zoology) A more or less elongated process or organ, simple or branched, proceeding from the head or cephalic region of invertebrate animals, being either an organ of sense, prehension, or motion.
(Science: zoology) Tentacle sheath, a sheathlike structure around the base of the tentacles of many mollusks.
Origin: NL. Tentaculum, from L. Tentare to handle, feel: cf. F. Tentacule. See Tempt.