||Ros*trif"e*ra (?), n. pl. [NL., fr. L. rostrum beak + ferre to bear.]
||(Zoöl.) A division of pectinibranchiate gastropods, having the head
||prolonged into a snout which is not retractile.
Ros"tri*form (?), a. [L. rostrum a beak + -form: cf. F. rostrifarme.]
Having the form of a beak.
||Ros"tru*lum (-tr*lm), n.; pl. Rostrula (#). [NL., dim. of L. rostrum
||a beak.] A little rostrum, or beak, as of an insect.
Ros"trum (-trm), n.; pl. L. Rostra (#), E. Rostrums (#). [L., beak,
ship's beak, fr. rodere, rosum, to gnaw. See Rodent.] 1. The beak or
head of a ship.
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2. pl. (Rostra) (Rom. Antiq.) The Beaks; the stage or platform in the
forum where orations, pleadings, funeral harangues, etc., were
delivered; -- so called because after the Latin war, it was adorned
with the beaks of captured vessels; later, applied also to other
platforms erected in Rome for the use of public orators.
3. Hence, a stage for public speaking; the pulpit or platform occupied
by an orator or public speaker.
Myself will mount the rostrum in his favor.
Addison.
4. (Zoöl.) (a) Any beaklike prolongation, esp. of the head of an
animal, as the beak of birds. (b) The beak, or sucking mouth parts, of
Hemiptera. (c) The snout of a gastropod mollusk. See Illust. of
Littorina. (d) The anterior, often spinelike, prolongation of the
carapace of a crustacean, as in the lobster and the prawn.