[ant] 
| 1. | any of numerous black, red, brown, or yellow social insects of the family Formicidae, of worldwide distribution esp. in warm climates, having a large head with inner jaws for chewing and outer jaws for carrying and digging, and living in highly organized colonies containing wingless female workers, a winged queen, and, during breeding seasons, winged males, some species being noted for engaging in warfare, slavemaking, or the cultivation of food sources. |
| 2. | have ants in one's pants, Slang. to be impatient or eager to act or speak. |
[ant, ahnt, eynt] | 1. | Chiefly British Dialect. contraction of am not. |
| 2. | Dialect. ain't. |
| var. of anti- before a vowel or h: antacid; anthelmintic. |
| a suffix forming adjectives and nouns from verbs, occurring originally in French and Latin loanwords (pleasant; constant; servant) and productive in English on this model; -ant has the general sense “characterized by or serving in the capacity of” that named by the stem (ascendant; pretendant), esp. in the formation of nouns denoting human agents in legal actions or other formal procedures (tenant; defendant; applicant; contestant). In technical and commercial coinages, -ant is a suffix of nouns denoting impersonal physical agents (propellant; lubricant; deodorant). In general, -ant can be added only to bases of Latin origin, with a very few exceptions, as coolant. |
| a prefix meaning “against,” “opposite of,” “antiparticle of,” used in the formation of compound words (anticline); used freely in combination with elements of any origin (antibody; antifreeze; antiknock; antilepton). |
| ant (ānt) n. Any of various social insects of the family Formicidae, characteristically having wings only in the males and fertile females and living in colonies that have a complex social organization. [Middle English amte, from Old English ǣmete.] |
ant- pref.
Variant of anti-.
anti- or ant-
pref.
Opposite: antimere.
Opposing; against: antisocial.
Counteracting; neutralizing: antibody.
| anti-
A prefix whose basic meaning is "against." It is used to form adjectives that mean "counteracting" (such as antiseptic, preventing infection). It is also used to form nouns referring to substances that counteract other substances (such as antihistamine, a substance counteracting histamine), and nouns meaning "something that displays opposite, reverse, or inverse characteristics of something else" (such as anticyclone, a storm that circulates in the opposite direction from a cyclone). Before a vowel it becomes ant-, as in antacid. |
Ant
(Heb. nemalah, from a word meaning to creep, cut off, destroy), referred to in Prov. 6:6; 30:25, as distinguished for its prudent habits. Many ants in Palestine feed on animal substances, but others draw their nourishment partly or exclusively from vegetables. To the latter class belongs the ant to which Solomon refers. This ant gathers the seeds in the season of ripening, and stores them for future use; a habit that has been observed in ants in Texas, India, and Italy.
ANT
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