| 释义 |
▪ I. ant|ænt|
Forms: 1 (W. Sax.) ǽmete, -ette, -ytte, 3–4 amete (amote), amte, 4–6 ampte, 5–6 ante, 5–7 annt, 6– ant. Also 1 (Anglian) *émete, 3–4 emete (-atte), 4–6 emote, 6 emmette, -otte (-ont), amyte, emet, 6–7 emmot(t, 6– emmet. pl. ants (1 ǽmetan, 2–4 ameten, 4 amptes).
[OE. ǽmete, émete, cogn. w. OHG. âmeiȥa, WGer. *âmaitjô, f. á- (see æ- prefix) off, away + maitan, ON. meita, OHG. meiȥan ‘to cut,’ as if ‘the cutter or biter off.’ (Graff.) The OE. became in 12–13th c. āmete or ēmete in different dialects; āmete has by suppression of medial vowel and bringing together of two consonants become amte (ampte), ante (cf. account for accompte), ant; ēmete, retaining the medial vowel, is now emmet, q.v. Ant is the leading literary form.]
1. a. A small social insect of the Hymenopterous order, celebrated for its industry; an emmet, a pismire. There are several genera and many species, exhibiting in their various habits and economy some of the most remarkable phenomena of the insect world. (For other quotations see emmet.)
c1000Sax. Leechd. I. 87 æmettan ægru ᵹenim. 1297R. Glouc. 296 As þycke as ameten crepeþ in an amete hulle. 1340Ayenb. 141 Alsuo ase þe litel amote. 1382Wyclif Prov. xxx. 25 Amptis [1388 amtis] a feble puple, that greithen in rep time mete to them. 1430Lydg. Chron. Troy i. i, He sawe by the earthe lowe Of Antes crepe passing greate plente. 1533Elyot Cast. Helth iii. xii. 66 b, The lyttelle ant or emote helpeth up his felowe. 1547Boorde Brev. Health clxi. 58 Amytes, or Pysmars, or Antes. 1585Lloyd Treas. Health B viij, Pouder of Amptes, myxte with Oyle. 1578L. Mascall Planting (1592) 58 For to destroy Emets or Antes, which be about a Tree. 1611Bible Prov. vi. 6 Goe to the Ant [Wycl. ampte, amte, Coverd. Emmet], thou sluggard. 1633G. Herbert Ch. Mil. in Temple 184 The smallest ant or atome knows thy power. 1642Sir T. Browne Relig. Med. 30 The wisdome of Bees, Annts and Spiders. 1733Pope Ess. Man iii. 184 The Ant's republic, and the realm of Bees. 1838Penny Cycl. X. 372 Formic Acid, or acid of ants. 1861Hulme Moquin-Tandon ii. iv. i. 213 When the Red Ant (Formica Rufa) crawls over a piece of litmus paper, it produces a red track.
b. In colloq. phr. to have ants in one's pants (orig. U.S.), to fidget constantly, esp. because of extreme agitation, excitement, nervousness, etc.; to be impatient or restless. Cf. antsy a.
[1939Kaufman & Hart Man who came to Dinner i. ii. 62 ‘I'm in love.’..‘I'll pull you out of this Miss Stardust..I'll get the ants out of those moonlit pants.’] 1940‘C. Woolrich’ Bride wore Black iii. iii. 181 Wagner started to have ants in his pants. 1942R. G. Dean Layoff xvi. 158 You have ants in your pants tonight. 1954E. McLeod tr. Colette's Vagabond i. i. 5 Once again I'm ready too soon. My friend..takes me to task... ‘You've always got ants in your pants.’ 1967Listener 30 Nov. 715/2 Notoriously, the American people have always had ants in the pants, or, as Mr Allsop puts it, an urge ‘to soak up the zircon light of potluck adventure from the bordermen’. 1986Washington Post 10 July b5/3 Uncle Milton has ants in his pants.
2. ant-eggs, ants' eggs, popular name of the larvæ of ants (a favourite food of young pheasants).
c1000[See 1]. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xix. xciii. 916 Yf amptes egges..ben remeuyd..the amptes gadreth theim and beeryth theym ayen to theyr neest. c1420Pallad. on Husb. i. 680 Annt eyron yeve hem [young pheasants] eke. 1585Lloyd Treas. Health F vj, Stampe Amptes egges and strain them thorough a clothe. 1663Butler Hud. i. iii. 325 Till purging Comfits and Ants Eggs Had almost brought him off his Legs. 1753Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v., Little vermicles, as small as mites, commonly called Ants-eggs. 1879Lubbock Sci. Lect. iii. 69 The larvæ of ants..when full grown, turn into pupæ..constituting the so-called ‘ant-eggs.’
3. white ant: A very destructive social insect of the Neuropterous order, also called Termite.
[c1328Jordanus 53 Est etiam genus parvissimarum formicarum sicut lana albarum, quarum durities dentium, etc. 1713Bluteau Port. Dict., Formigas biancas.] 1729A. Hamilton New Acct. E. Indies II. xlvii, The white ants, which are really insects, that..can do much mischief to cloth, timber, etc. 1842Penny Cycl. XXIV. 233 The Termites, or white ants, as they are often called, though they have little affinity with the true ants, are chiefly confined to the tropics. 1857Livingstone Trav. xxvii. 540 The white ants..are the chief agents employed in forming a fertile soil.
4. attrib. and Comb., as ant-colony, ant-community, ant-man; ant-bird, any bird of the ant-eating family Formicariidæ, ant-thrush; ant-catcher = ant-thrush; ant-cow, a popular name for the aphides kept and tended by ants for the sake of the sweet fluid that they extract from them; ant-eggs, ants' eggs, properly, the eggs of ants; popularly applied to their larvæ or pupæ; ant-guest, an animal of any other species, that habitually lives in ants' nests; ant-heap, ant-hillock, = ant-hill; ant-hive, an artificial nest for ants; ant-orchis, a terrestrial Australasian orchid of the species Chiloglottis gunnii (Morris Austral English, 1898); ant-rice (see quot.); ants' wood = saffron plum (saffron B. b); † ant-wart (see quot.); ant-worm, the larva of the ant; ant-wren, W. Swainson's name for a South American ant-eating bird of the genus Formicivora, included by P. L. Sclater in the subfamily Formicariinæ in his division of the family Formicariidæ, the ant-thrushes. Also obvious syntactic combinations, as ant-eating, ant-like.
Also ant-bear, ant-eater, ant-egg, ant-fly, ant-hill, ant-lion, ant-thrush q.v.
1858Sclater in Proc. Zool. Soc. 13 Apr. 202 Synopsis of the American *Ant-birds (Formicariidæ).
1868Chambers Encycl. s.v., The true *ant-catchers..are of comparatively sober plumage, live among the huge ant-hills, seldom fly.
1897J. H. Comstock Insect Life viii. 276 The workers are by far the most interesting portion of the *ant colony.
1909H. C. McCook (title) *Ant communities and how they are governed. 1924J. A. Thomson Sci. Old & New xii. 67 The success of the ant-community depends on a semi-repression of the workers.
1875Encycl. Brit. II. 98/1 The Coccidæ in America take the place of the European aphides as *ant-cows.
1875Blake Zool. 85 The *ant-eating forms of edentata.
1666Phil. Trans. No. 23. 426 Upon opening of these Banks, I observe first a white substance, which..looks like the scatterings of fine white Sugar or Salt... This same substance..I finde in the Ants themselves, which I take to be the true *Ants Eggs. Ibid. 427 In the Morning they bring up those of their Young (that are vulgarly call'd Ants Eggs) towards the top of the Bank. 1834Penny Cycl. II. 61/1 To collect the cocoons (popularly and erroneously called ants'-eggs) in quantity as food for nightingales and larks.
1879Lubbock Sci. Lect. iii. 72 The majority of these *ant-guests are beetles.
1591Percivall Sp. Dict., Hormiguero, an *ant heape, Formicarium, myrmicetum. 1859E. Burritt in Smiles Self-Help 82 That plodding, patient, persevering process of accretion which builds the ant-heap.
1657Trapp Comm. Ps. cxiii. 4 He looketh on the earth as on an *Ant-hillock. a1719Addison (J.) Those who have seen ant-hillocks, have..perceived those small heaps of corn about their nests.
1826Kirby & Spence Entomol. (1828) II. xvii. 58 Huber invented a kind of *ant-hive.
1879Geo. Eliot Theo. Such xvii. 302 Every petty *ant-like performance. 1901H. G. Wells First Men in Moon xxii. 272 These ant-like beings, these ant-men.
1949E. Sitwell Canticle of Rose 254 But I saw the little *Ant-men as they ran.
1879Lubbock Sci. Lect. iv. 109 A Texan ant..is also a harvesting species, storing up especially the grains of Aristida oligantha, the so-called *‘ant rice.’
1884*Ants' Wood [see saffron B. b].
1585Nomenclator (N.) An *ant-wart, which, being deepe-rooted, broad below, and little above, doth make one feele, as it were, the stinging of ants.
1747W. Gould Acc. Eng. Ants 39 *Ant Worms can only a little turn or extend their Bodies.
1825W. Swainson in Zool. Jrnl. (1826) II. 146 The Formicivoræ, or *Ant-Wrens, are all of them very small.
▪ II. ant
obs. form of aunt, and of and. |