Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A mound of soil, sand, or dirt formed by ants or termites in digging or building a nest.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A cone-shaped formation constructed from sediment and other available materials by ants or termites. The colony nests underneath this cone.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English ametehul, from Old English ǣmethyll ("anthill"), equivalent to ant +‎ hill.

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Examples

  • Each ant in an anthill is doing this or that, but the anthill itself is doing something else. cogito, ergo Mixner non sum Says:

    Matthew Yglesias » Ungovernable 2009

  • Now maybe a thousand kilometers away from our anthill is another anthill.

    Vatican Holds Conference on Extraterrestrial Life | Universe Today 2009

  • Not all of the faceless residents of the "anthill" are as lucky as Huang.

    Latest News - Yahoo!7 News 2010

  • Not all of the faceless residents of the "anthill" are as lucky as Huang.

    Latest News - Yahoo!7 News 2010

  • Her forehead was swelling like an anthill, with beads of blood flowing out of it instead of insects.

    Chocolate & Vicodin Jennette Fulda 2011

  • Driving for three hours was like knocking over an anthill and daring a hundred little creatures to gnaw on my nerve endings.

    Chocolate & Vicodin Jennette Fulda 2011

  • Haunted by memories of the terrible mistake that drove him to this island and away from a successful career as a surgeon, he lives in a stasis so complete an anthill grows undisturbed in his living room.

    BookBrowse Previews April Books 2009

  • Her forehead was swelling like an anthill, with beads of blood flowing out of it instead of insects.

    Chocolate & Vicodin Jennette Fulda 2011

  • Haunted by memories of the terrible mistake that drove him to this island and away from a successful career as a surgeon, he lives in a stasis so complete an anthill grows undisturbed in his living room.

    BookBrowse Previews April Books 2009

  • Driving for three hours was like knocking over an anthill and daring a hundred little creatures to gnaw on my nerve endings.

    Chocolate & Vicodin Jennette Fulda 2011

Comments

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  • I can't decide whether or not the two WeirdNet definitions contradict each other; I suppose it depends on the definition of natural.

    September 24, 2008

  • Regarding the fossil evidence of dinosaur-age mammals found in anthills: "It has been found that in addition to ordinary sand-grains certain of the anthills also contain fossils, tiny teeth, bone fragments, and in rare instances perfect bones that the ants had unconsciously collected and have been the source of much of our knowledge of smaller forms which were contemporaneous with the larger reptiles." - Popular Science Monthly, September, 1915, p. 241.

    March 8, 2011

  • "After the Indian camp has broken up and moved away, many Indian beads can usually be found on the outside of the anthills." Ants Ornamenting Their Homes, St. Nicholas: a Monthly Magazine for Boys and Girls, Volume 27, Part 1, p. 549, 1900.

    March 8, 2011