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ANT
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Social insect living in organized colonies; characteristically the males and fertile queen have wings during breeding season; wingless sterile females are the workers
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("ant" is a kind of...):
hymenopter; hymenopteran; hymenopteron; hymenopterous insect (insects having two pairs of membranous wings and an ovipositor specialized for stinging or piercing)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "ant"):
Monomorium pharaonis; pharaoh's ant; pharaoh ant (small red ant of warm regions; a common household pest)
little black ant; Monomorium minimum (tiny glossy black ant; nests outdoors but invades houses for food)
army ant; driver ant; legionary ant (tropical nomadic ant that preys mainly on other insects)
carpenter ant (ant that nests in decaying wood in which it bores tunnels for depositing eggs)
fire ant (omnivorous ant of tropical and subtropical America that can inflict a painful sting)
Formica rufa; wood ant (reddish-brown European ant typically living in anthills in woodlands)
slave ant (any of various ants captured as larvae and enslaved by another species)
slave-maker; slave-making ant (an ant that attacks colonies of other ant species and carries off the young to be reared as slave ants)
bulldog ant (any of the large fierce Australian ants of the genus Myrmecia)
Holonyms ("ant" is a member of...):
family Formicidae; Formicidae (ants)
Context examples:
The acacia trees produce specialized structures to shelter and feed the ant colony, and the ants, in turn, defend the tree against herbivores.
(Between ants and acacias, timing is everything, National Science Foundation)
He added, how I had endeavoured to persuade him, that in my own and other countries, the Yahoos acted as the governing, rational animal, and held the Houyhnhnms in servitude; that he observed in me all the qualities of a Yahoo, only a little more civilized by some tincture of reason, which, however, was in a degree as far inferior to the Houyhnhnm race, as the Yahoos of their country were to me; that, among other things, I mentioned a custom we had of castrating Houyhnhnms when they were young, in order to render them tame; that the operation was easy and safe; that it was no shame to learn wisdom from brutes, as industry is taught by the ant, and building by the swallow (for so I translate the word lyhannh, although it be a much larger fowl); that this invention might be practised upon the younger Yahoos here, which besides rendering them tractable and fitter for use, would in an age put an end to the whole species, without destroying life; that in the mean time the Houyhnhnms should be exhorted to cultivate the breed of asses, which, as they are in all respects more valuable brutes, so they have this advantage, to be fit for service at five years old, which the others are not till twelve.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
He had indeed become like one of those ants of which I have read, who are so accustomed to be fed by smaller ants that when they are left to themselves they die of hunger.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Main findings are that snap-jaws are the fastest of the spring-loaded ant mouthparts, and the fastest currently known animal movement.
(Dracula Ant Found to Be Fastest Creature on Earth, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
He showed me the West-end streets, with the bright carriages and the gaily dressed ladies and sombre-clad men, all crossing and hurrying and recrossing like an ants’ nest when you turn it over with a stick.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
And as he sat there, the king of the ants (whose life he had saved) came to help him, with five thousand ants; and it was not long before they had found all the pearls and laid them in a heap.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
There is a cost associated with making these traits, says Poethig, senior author of the report, “but the plant needs them, otherwise it’s a goner. Dan showed: no ants, no plants. The plant is eaten by everything from grasshoppers to mice. So there’s a tradeoff happening. And what we found is that these traits seem to have evolved on the back of a preexisting pathway that governs a developmental transition in plants.###!!!###
(Between ants and acacias, timing is everything, National Science Foundation)
I one day took the freedom to tell his majesty, that the contempt he discovered towards Europe, and the rest of the world, did not seem answerable to those excellent qualities of mind that he was master of; that reason did not extend itself with the bulk of the body; on the contrary, we observed in our country, that the tallest persons were usually the least provided with it; that among other animals, bees and ants had the reputation of more industry, art, and sagacity, than many of the larger kinds; and that, as inconsiderable as he took me to be, I hoped I might live to do his majesty some signal service.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
There was a pleasing inequality in the table, which produced many mishaps to cups and plates, acorns dropped in the milk, little black ants partook of the refreshments without being invited, and fuzzy caterpillars swung down from the tree to see what was going on.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
The team also conducted computer simulations of the mandible snaps of different castes of Dracula ants to test how the shape and structural characteristics of the mandibles affected the power of their snap.
(Dracula Ant Found to Be Fastest Creature on Earth, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
