ant

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. 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.
2. idiom. ants in (one's) pants Slang A state of restless impatience: "She's got ants in her pants” ( Bobbie Ann Mason).

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. An emmet; a hymenopterous insect of the family Formicidœ and the Linnean genus Formica, now divided into several genera. Ants live in communities, and the internal economy of their nest or hillock presents an extraordinary example of the results of combined industry. Each community comprises males with four wings, females much larger than the males and possessing wings during the pairing season only, and barren females, called neuters, workers, or nurses, destitute of wings. The females lay their eggs in parcels of six or more. The males and females desert the nest and copulate soon after becoming perfect; but the latter are brought back by the workers, or else found new colonies, with or without help. The male, like the drone-bee, becomes useless after impregnating the female. The grubs spin a cocoon, and become pupæ, which resemble barleycorns, and are popularly taken for eggs. Under the names of ants' brood, ants' eggs, they are an article of import in some northern countries for making formic acid; a solution of them in water is used for vinegar in Norway. The young grubs are fed by the females and by the nurses, who also construct the streets and galleries of the colony, and in general perform all the work of the community. There are many kinds of ants, called from the operations they perform mining-ants, carpenters, masons, etc. The favorite food of ants is honey, particularly the honey-dew excreted by aphids; but they also live on fruits, insects and their larvæ, and dead birds and mammals. They are torpid in winter. Those of the same or different species engage in pitched battles, and capture slaves or take larvæ from other nests. Some species have stings, others squirt out an irritant fluid (formic acid). See cut under Atta. The name ant, or white ant, is also given to insects of the neuropterous genus Termes. See termite.
2. An old form of and.
3. n. A former spelling of aunt.
4. n. The form of anti- before vowels in words taken from or formed according to the Greek, as in antagonist. In words formed in English, anti- usually remains unchanged before a vowel, as in anti-episcopal, etc.
5. n. A suffix of adjectives, and of nouns originally adjectives, primarily (in the original Latin) a present participle suffix, cognate with the original form (AS. -ende) of English -ing, as in dominant, ruling, regnant, reigning, radiant, beaming, etc. See -ent.
6. n. A corruption of -an, of various origin, as in pageant, peasant, pheasant, truant, tyrant. See these words.

Wiktionary

1. n. Any of various insects in the family Formicidae in the order Hymenoptera, typically living in large colonies composed almost entirely of flightless females.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A hymenopterous insect of the Linnæan genus Formica, which is now made a family of several genera; an emmet; a pismire.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. social insect living in organized colonies; characteristically the males and fertile queen have wings during breeding season; wingless sterile females are the workers