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MITE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Any of numerous very small to minute arachnids often infesting animals or plants or stored foods
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("mite" is a kind of...):
acarine (mite or tick)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "mite"):
web-spinning mite (a mite that spins a web)
acarid (very small free-living arachnid that is parasitic on animals or plants; related to ticks)
trombidiid (mite that in all stages feeds on other arthropods)
trombiculid (mite that as nymph and adult feeds on early stages of small arthropods but whose larvae are parasitic on terrestrial vertebrates)
acarus; genus Acarus (any of several mites of the order Acarina)
itch mite; sarcoptid (whitish mites that attack the skin of humans and other animals)
rust mite (any of several varieties of mite that burrow into plants and cause a reddish-brown discoloration on the leaves or fruit)
spider mite; tetranychid (web-spinning mite that attacks garden plants and fruit trees)
Holonyms ("mite" is a member of...):
Acarina; order Acarina (mites and ticks)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A slight but appreciable amount
Example:
this dish could use a touch of garlic
Synonyms:
hint; jot; mite; pinch; soupcon; speck; tinge; touch
Classified under:
Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure
Hypernyms ("mite" is a kind of...):
small indefinite amount; small indefinite quantity (an indefinite quantity that is below average size or magnitude)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "mite"):
snuff (a pinch of smokeless tobacco inhaled at a single time)
Context examples:
The dust was tested for 5 common inner city allergens: cat, cockroach, dog, dust mite, and mouse.
(Infant Exposure to Allergens May Help Prevent Wheezing, NIH)
Now, little mite of a man, do that likewise, Well thrown, said the tailor, but after all the stone came down to earth again; I will throw you one which shall never come back at all, and he put his hand into his pocket, took out the bird, and threw it into the air.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
She knew he must be at some expense, that he would have many things to buy, though to be sure his father and mother would be able to put him in the way of getting everything very cheap; but she was very glad she had contributed her mite towards it.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
The cake ain't hurt a mite, and everything looks lovely.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
In the late 1980s, tiny Varroa mites began to spread through bee colonies in the United States.
(Mushroom Extract Could Help Save Bees from Virus, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
I am sure my fancy raised up something round that blue-eyed mite of a child, which etherealized, and made a very angel of her.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
My dear Sir Thomas, I perfectly comprehend you, and do justice to the generosity and delicacy of your notions, which indeed are quite of a piece with your general conduct; and I entirely agree with you in the main as to the propriety of doing everything one could by way of providing for a child one had in a manner taken into one's own hands; and I am sure I should be the last person in the world to withhold my mite upon such an occasion.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
'Not a mite more than I ought, ma'am.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
The paper describes how bees given a small amount of his mushroom mycelia extract exhibited remarkable reductions in the presence of viruses associated with parasitic mites that have been attacking, and infecting, bee colonies for decades.
(Mushroom Extract Could Help Save Bees from Virus, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
