insectn.
/ˈɪnsɛkt/, U.S. /ˈɪnˌsɛk(t)/ 1. A small invertebrate animal, usually having a body divided into segments, and several pairs of legs, and often winged; in popular use comprising, besides the animals scientifically so called (see 2), many other arthropods, as spiders, mites, centipedes, woodlice, etc., and other invertebrates, as the ‘coral-insect’; formerly (and still by the uneducated) applied still more widely, e.g. to earthworms, snails, and even some small vertebrates, as frogs and tortoises.
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the world > animals > animal body > [noun] > small animal
oryxa1382
small deer14..
mite1594
animalcule1599
insect1601
animalillio1647
minim of nature1667
animalcula1716
beastie1765
beastling1789
thumb1854
the world > animals > invertebrates > [noun] > invertebrate
insect1601
beastie1820
invertebrate1826
evertebrate1876
macro-invertebrate1956
invert1965
the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > [noun] > member of
crabc1000
crab-fisha1400
crayfish1509
insect1601
many-foot1601
insectile1615
condylope1835
condylopod1855
arthropod1861
the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > [noun] > member of
buddea1200
Bruchusa1398
cut-fowl1587
insect1601
intersect1655
beastie1820
scallop hook tip1829
hexapod1875
wog1922
1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World II. Catal. Words Art Insects, little vermine or small creatures, which have (as it were) a cut or diuision betweene their heads and bodies, as Pismires, Flies, Grashoppers, vnder which are comprehended Earthwormes, Caterpillers, [etc.].
1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Insecte, an Insect; a small fleshlesse, and bloudlesse vermine, diuided (in some sort) betweene the head, bodie, and bellie, as an Ant, Fly, Bee, etc.; vnder which, the Earthworme, Caterpiller, etc. be also comprehended.
1646 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica iii. xv. 142 The Scolopendra or hundred footed insect . View more context for this quotation
1658 tr. S. de Cyrano de Bergerac Satyrical Characters xxvi. 95 Me-thinks I hear an angry frog croak..I use this Author something ill to reduce him to the Insects.
1661 R. Lovell Πανζωορυκτολογια, sive Panzoologicomineralogia Isagoge sig. D6 Of Insects, few are used as meat, except snailes, which some count most dainty sweet and nourishing meat.
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost vii. 476 At once came forth whatever creeps the ground, Insect or Worme. View more context for this quotation
1732 J. Arbuthnot Pract. Rules of Diet i. 253 All Birds which feed upon Worms and Insects.
1754 New & Compl. Dict. Arts & Sci. III. 2032 Medusa, in zoology, a genus of naked insects.
1806 P. Wakefield Domest. Recreat. vii. 97 Desire John to bring in the pan with the sea-insects..What strange creatures! they are far more like flowers than insects. Therefore they are called sea-anemonies.
1863 H. W. Bates Naturalist on River Amazons I. iv. 161 A large hairy spider of the genus Mygale...The Mygales are quite common insects.
2. Zoology. An animal belonging to the class Insecta of Arthropoda: see insecta n. 2.Only gradually restricted from the wider popular use. The earlier quots. here refer to true insects, but their authors would undoubtedly have included other animals under the name.
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1589 G. Puttenham Arte Eng. Poesie iii. v. 125 So also is the Ante or pismire, and they be but little creeping things, not perfect beasts, but insects, or wormes.
1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World I. xi. i. 310 Many and sundrie sorts there be of Insects..and well may they all be called Insecta: by reason of those cuts and divisions, which some have about the necke, others in the breast and belly; the which doe goe round and part the members of the bodie, hanging togither only by a little pipe and fistulous conveiance.
1658 E. Phillips New World Eng. Words An Insect, the smallest sort of Animal, as a Fly, Bee, or Ant, some think them to be so called, because they have a kind of division, or section, between the head and the belly.
a1704 J. Locke Elem. Nat. Philos. x, in Coll. Several Pieces (1720) 212 They are call'd Insects, from a separation in the middle of their bodys, whereby they are, as it were, cut into two parts, which are join'd together by a small ligature: as we see in Wasps, Common flys and the like.
1753 Chambers's Cycl. Suppl. Insects make one of the classes of animals, the characters of which are, that their body is covered with a sort of bony substance instead of skin, and their heads are furnished with antennae, called horns. Linnæi Syst. Nat. p. 83.
1774 O. Goldsmith Hist. Earth VII. 239 We may define insects to be little animals without red blood, bones or cartilages, furnished with a trunk, or else a mouth, opening lengthwise, with eyes which they are incapable of covering, and with lungs which have their openings on the sides.
1828 J. Stark Elements Nat. Hist. II. 217 Latreille divides the class of Insects, as now restricted, into eleven orders..The Parasita and Thysanoura, which Latreille previously arranged with the Arachnides, Dr. Leach first added to the class of Insects.
1862 C. Darwin On Var. Contrivances Orchids Fertilised i. 38 Certain orchids require special insects for their fertilization.
1891 L. C. Miall in Nature 10 Sept. 457/1 We understand insects to be animals of small size, furnished with a hard skin and six legs, breathing by branched air-tubes, and commonly provided in the adult condition with wings.
3. figurative. Applied contemptuously to a person, as insignificant or despicable (sometimes also as annoying, like an insect persistently buzzing around or settling upon one).
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the mind > goodness and badness > inferiority or baseness > inferior person > [noun] > held in contempt
thingOE
cat?c1225
geggea1300
fox-whelpc1320
creaturea1325
whelp1338
scoutc1380
turnbroach14..
foumart1508
shit1508
get?a1513
strummel?a1513
scofting?1518
pismirea1535
clinchpoop1555
rag1566
huddle and twang1578
whipster1590
slop1599
shullocka1603
tailor1607
turnspit1607
fitchewa1616
bulchin1617
trundle-taila1626
tick1631
louse1633
fart1669
insect1684
mully-grub-gurgeon1746
grub-worm1752
rass1790
foutre1794
blister1806
snot1809
skin1825
scurf1851
scut1873
Siwash1882
stiff1882
bleeder1887
blighter1896
sugar1916
vuilgoed1924
klunk1942
fart sack1943
fart-arse1946
jerkwad1980
the mind > attention and judgement > importance > unimportance > [noun] > one who is unimportant > paltry, mean, or contemptible
turdc1400
shrub1566
skybala1572
peltera1577
whipstart1581
smatchetc1582
squib1586
paltripolitan1588
scrub1589
Jack-a-Lent1596
snotty-nose1604
whipstera1616
whimling1616
whiffler1659
insignificancy1661
insect1684
insignificant1710
pic1839
squirt1844
whiffmagig1871
sniff1890
picayune1903
1684 T. Otway Atheist i. 6 We are over-run with a Race of Vermin they call Wits, a Generation of Insects that are always making a Noise.
1707 T. Hearne Remarks & Coll. 24 Jan. (O.H.S.) I. 322 He, the little Insect, was recommended to King William.
1798 T. Chalmers Posthumous Wks. (1849) VI. 7 It is not for us, the frail insects of a day..to oppose the feeble powers of our reason to the wonders of Omnipotence.
1813 W. Scott Bridal of Triermain ii. Interlude ii. 106 Insects that skim in Fashion's sky, Wasp, blue-bottle, or butterfly.
Compounds
C1. General attributive.
a. That is an insect.
insect breeze n.
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1678 S. Butler Hudibras: Third Pt. iii. ii. 93 The Learned write, An Insect Breeze, Is but a Mungrel Prince of Bees, That Falls, before a Storm, on Cows, And stings the Founders of his House.
insect-drone n.
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1902 W. de la Mare Songs of Childhood 30 Is it for fear the birds are flown, And shrills the insect-drone?
1939 ‘N. Blake’ Smiler with Knife xi. 168 The insect-drone of a lawnmower.
insect lamp n.
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1744 J. Thomson Summer in Seasons (new ed.) 89 From Menam's orient Stream, that nightly shines With Insect-Lamps.
insect locust n.
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1658 J. Rowland tr. T. Moffett Theater of Insects in Topsell's Hist. Four-footed Beasts (rev. ed.) 1125 The Insect-Locust is like the Lobster, for that cannot be called either flesh or fish.
insect pest n.
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1854 Zoologist 12 4179 The galleries or perforations of these insect-pests.
insect vermin n.
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1808 ‘H. St. Victor’ Ruins of Rigonda II. 109 Insect vermin which swarmed on the walls.
b. Consisting of insects.
insect kind n.
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1711 Ld. Shaftesbury Characteristicks II. iv. 94 Be they of the poorest Insect-kind, such as Bees or Wasps; 'tis natural to 'em to be rous'd with Fury.
insect myriads n.
insect quire n.
insect race n.
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1817 P. B. Shelley Laon & Cythna x. xv. 219 The fish were poisoned in the streams..the insect race Was withered up.
insect society n.
insect tribe n.
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1744 J. Thomson Spring in Seasons (new ed.) 5 And some, with whom compar'd, your Insect-Tribes Are but the Beings of a Summer's Day.
insect youth n.
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1748 T. Gray Ode in R. Dodsley Coll. Poems II. 266 The insect youth are on the wing, Eager to..float amid the liquid noon.
c. Resembling or likened to an insect.
insect follower n.
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1751 T. Smollett Peregrine Pickle IV. civ. 144 All those insect followers shrink away in the winter of distress.
insect understanding n.
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1816 J. Gilchrist Philos. Etymol. 105 These cobwebs entangle insect understandings like their own.
insect vexation n.
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1750 S. Johnson Rambler No. 68. ⁋3 Insect vexations which sting us and fly away.
d. Of or belonging to insects.
insect egg n.
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1822 J. M. Good Study Med. I. 292 The atmosphere is freighted with myriads of insect-eggs that elude our senses.
insect fungus n.
insect head n.
insect larva n.
insect life n.
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1711 Ld. Shaftesbury Characteristicks III. Misc. iii. i. 156 The Contemplation of the Insect-Life.
insect maggot n.
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1747 W. Gould Acct. Eng. Ants 39 Most Insect Maggots are furnished with a Set of Legs.
insect origin n.
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1822 J. M. Good Study Med. I. 524 Linnæus, who..endeavoured to resolve almost all diseases..into an animalcular or insect origin.
insect parasite n.
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1853 Zoologist 11 4045 These exceedingly rare insect-parasites.
insect queen n.
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1813 Ld. Byron Giaour 6 Rising on its purple wing The insect-queen of eastern spring [note, The blue-winged butterfly of Kashmeer, the most rare and beautiful of the species].
insect wax n.
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1853 Zoologist 11 3820 Specimens of the white insect-wax of China.
insect wing n.
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1714 A. Pope Rape of Lock (new ed.) ii. 13 Some to the Sun their Insect-Wings unfold.
e. For insects.
insect-box n.
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1837 Lett. fr. Madras (1843) 140 Many thanks for the insect~box and pins.
insect-cabinet n.
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1843 Zoologist 1 342 An insect-cabinet containing twelve drawers.
insect-repellent n.
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1953 P. M. Scott & J. M. M. Fisher Thousand Geese v. 50 We had brought effective insect-repellents, so we were not much troubled by the biting elements of the insect population.
1971 L. Payne Even my Foot's Asleep xvi. 214 A musky, incense-type perfume..probably an insect repellent.
insect-trap n.
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1887 Amer. Naturalist 21 501 The plant which I have to notice because of its peculiarity as an insect-trap.
C2. Objective, instrumental, etc.
a.
insect-borne adj.
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1909 R. W. Boyce Mosquito or Man? iv. 23 It is Dr. Beauperthuy whom we must regard as the father of the doctrine of insect-borne disease.
1946 Nature 21 Dec. 913/1 Analogy with filariasis elsewhere would suggest that the infection is insect-borne.
1972 Nature 21 Jan. 135/2 To prevent the spread of insect-borne diseases.
insect-collector n.
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1878 S. Smiles Robert Dick v. 45 He was an insect-collector.
insect control n.
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1936 Discovery Feb. 44/1 The legal insistence on insect control is lax or non-existent until there is an actual outbreak of some pest causing serious financial loss.
1951 A. W. A. Brown (title) Insect control by chemicals.
insect-destroyer n.
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1875 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. Insect-destroyer, a device for killing noxious insects.
insect-eater n.
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1773 White in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 64 201 These birds..insect-eaters themselves.
1908 Westm. Gaz. 22 Feb. 16/1 There is a class of small mammals, mostly of nocturnal habits, that come under the order of Insectivora, or insect-eaters.
1936 Discovery July 212/2 Bee-eaters, swallows, swifts, and other insect-eaters.
insect-eating adj.
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1844 W. B. Carpenter Animal Physiol. iv. 141 Insect-eating animals, obtain their food by means of a long extensible tongue.
1879 J. Lubbock Sci. Lect. i. 4 The first observation on insect-eating flowers was made about the year 1768 by our countryman Ellis.
insect-fed adj.
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1891 Daily News 15 Dec. 5/4 It has been reserved for..Mr. Francis Darwin, to prove conclusively that insect-fed plants bear heavier and more numerous seeds than unfed ones.
insect-feeding adj.
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1909 Westm. Gaz. 23 Apr. 4/2 The migratory, insect-feeding birds from the South..begin their nesting work.
insect-fertilizable adj.
insect-fertilization n.
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1880 A. R. Wallace Island Life 473 Many of them require insect-fertilisation.
insect-fertilized adj.
insect-haunted adj.
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1897 M. Kingsley Trav. W. Afr. 572 I write by the light of an insect-haunted lantern.
insect-hunter n.
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1857 E. Newman (title) The Insect-hunters or Entomology in Verse.
1897 M. Kingsley Trav. W. Afr. 169 I had to jump at a rock wall, and hang on to it in a manner more befitting an insect than an insect-hunter.
insect-pollinated adj.
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1911 F. O. Bower Plant-life on Land 96 In a family (Ranunculaceae) as a rule insect-pollinated.
1953 J. S. Huxley Evol. in Action i. 34 Insect-pollinated flowers.
insect-proof adj.
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1908 Japan Chron. 1 July 4/6 It [sc. a kind of paper] is said to be capable of being worked into all sorts of patterns, to be insect-proof and damp-proof.
1946 Nature 21 Sept. 417/2 Two insect-proof cubicles in the glasshouse were filled with healthy young turnip and Chinese cabbage plants.
b.
insect-like adj. and adv.
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1772 G. White Let. 9 Mar. in Nat. Hist. Selborne (1789) 147 I..believe that many of the swallow kind..do, insect-like and bat-like, come forth at mild times.
1929 D. H. Lawrence Pansies 118 Working men Pale and mean and insect-like, scuttling along And living like lice.
1930 R. Campbell Adamastor 55 Faint, insect~like and thin it came, The wistful sound those heroes made.
C3. Special combinations.† insect-flower n. poetic Obsolete applied to a sea-anemone.
insect-bed n. (see quot.).
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > structure of the earth > structural features > sedimentary formation > [noun] > stratum > stratum by constitution > organic remains or fossils
moorlog1655
coal plant1695
leaf bed1697
plant bed1784
oyster bed1833
stem-bed1853
forest-bed1861
starfish bed1861
fish-bed1869
insect-bed1893
lagerstätte1972
1893 A. Geikie Geol. (ed. 3) 899 These relics of insect life, are so abundant in the calcareous bands [of the British Lias] that the latter are known as insect-beds.
insect-feeder n. a creature that feeds on insects.
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the world > animals > by eating habits > [noun] > carnivore > that feeds on insects
flycatcher1600
insect-feeder1835
insectivore1863
fly-eater1895
1835–6 Todd's Cycl. Anat. & Physiol. I. 599/2 The many pointed tuberculous teeth of the insect-feeders.
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the world > animals > invertebrates > subkingdom Metazoa > grade Diploblastica > phylum Coelenterata > [noun] > class Anthozoa Actinozoa > order Zoantharia > suborder Actiniaria > member of
sea-nettle1601
red nettle1611
sea-spout1731
anemone1742
sea-anemone1742
sea-mushroom1742
sea-pudding1750
actinia1752
sea-carnation1768
sea star-flower1768
sea-sunflower1768
sea-daisya1776
sea-marigolda1776
sea-torchthistlea1776
insect-flower1791
sea-flower1850
aurora1858
actiniarian1874
actinian1876
1791 E. Darwin Bot. Garden: Pt. I i. 121 You guard the Mermaid in her briny vale; Feed the live petals of her insect-flowers.
insect-gun n. a small bellows for blowing insect-powder into crevices or sprinkling it upon plants.
insect-net n. a light head-net for catching insects; a butterfly-net.
insect-powder n. a powder (usually prepared from the dried flowers of species of Pyrethrum) used to kill or drive away insects.
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1893 Jrnl. Royal Agric. Soc. 3rd Ser. 4 823 Ordinary insect-powders..were quite ineffectual.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1900; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
† insectadj.
Obsolete.
Having the body divided into segments; chiefly in insect animals = Latin animālia insecta: see insecta n.
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the world > animals > animal body > general parts > [adjective] > segmented
insecta1658
zoonite1838
segmental1854
segmented1854
zoonitic1860
segmentate1875
metamerized1878
somatomic1882
somitic1888
somital1890
a1658 J. Cleveland Clievelandi Vindiciæ (1677) 136 Meeting with the putrid Matter of your Invention, as the Sun produceth Insect Animals.
a1676 M. Hale Primitive Originat. Mankind (1677) iv. ii. 306 Some insect Animals.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1900; most recently modified version published online March 2021).
† insectv.1
/ɪnˈsɛkt/ Obsolete. rare.
transitive. To cut into.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > creation > destruction > cutting > cut [verb (transitive)]
snithec725
carvec1000
cutc1275
slitc1275
hag1294
ritc1300
chop1362
slash1382
cut and carvea1398
flash?a1400
flish?a1400
slenda1400
race?a1425
raise?a1425
razea1425
scotch?c1425
ochec1440
slitec1450
ranch?a1525
scorchc1550
scalp1552
mincea1560
rash?1565
beslash1581
fent1589
engrave1590
nick1592
snip1593
carbonado1596
rescide1598
skice1600
entail1601
chip1609
wriggle1612
insecate1623
carbonate1629
carbonade1634
insecta1652
flick1676
sneg1718
snick1728
slot1747
sneck1817
tame1847
bite-
a1652 R. Brome Queen & Concubine iii. vii. 58 in Five New Playes (1659) Down with their weapons, up with their heels, till we insect and rip up the intrails of the cause.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1900; most recently modified version published online March 2021).
insectv.2
/ˈɪnsɛkt/, U.S. /ˈɪnˌsɛk(t)/ intransitive. To hunt or catch insects.Apparently an isolated use.
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1879 J. Burroughs Locusts & Wild Honey 203 We discovered the bird..insecting in the top of a newly-fallen hemlock.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1900; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1589
adj.a1658v.1a1652
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