1. One who, or that which, clasps, as a tendril. "The claspers of vines." Derham.
2. (Zoöl.) (a) One of a pair of organs used by the male for grasping the female among many of the Crustacea. (b) One of a pair of male copulatory organs, developed on the anterior side of the ventral fins of sharks and other elasmobranchs. See Illust. of Chimæra.
CLASPERED
Clasp"ered, a.
Defn: Furnished with tendrils.
CLASS Class, n. Etym: [F. classe, fr. L. classis class, collection, fleet; akin to Gr. claim, haul.]
1. A group of individuals ranked together as possessing common characteristics; as, the different classes of society; the educated class; the lower classes.
2. A number of students in a school or college, of the same standing, or pursuing the same studies.
3. A comprehensive division of animate or inanimate objects, grouped together on account of their common characteristics, in any classification in natural science, and subdivided into orders, families, tribes, gemera, etc.
4. A set; a kind or description, species or variety. She had lost one class energies. Macaulay.
5. (Methodist Church)