Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Of, pertaining to, or resembling an ant or ants. Also formicine.
- To swarm (in the manner of ants).
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. (Zoöl.) Resembling, or pertaining to, an ant or ants.
- v. To creep or crawl like ants; swarm with, or as with, ants.
WordNet 3.0
- v. crawl about like ants
Etymologies
- From Latin formica (ant) + -ate. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Instead of letting me watch two people formicate, the whole thing looks like one of those propaganda videos of "successful" missions in Iraq that the Pentagon is always showing.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘formicate’.
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[Open] Correctly-spelled words that l...
Thanks to everyone who added to this list. (I moved it to a new URL, so all the words added on the first day are credited to me—sorry about that.)
(Here’s the original list with a slo...orignal, refect, collum, lightening, manakin, neumatic, mutch, miosis, radicle, tryptic, kyack, apatite and 119 more...
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phrontistery - f
from phrontistery.info
fabaceous, fabiform, fabulist, faburden, face-cord, facetiae, facia, facinorous, factious, factitious, factitive, factive and 418 more...
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ants
9,000 species
ant, antlike, emmet, ergataner, ergate, ergatogyne, formicate, kelep, leafcutter, myrmecoid, nasute, pismire and 19 more...
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The Fantastic Chiliastic
chiliastic, hapax legomenon, anosognosia, jactitation, infundibular, twee, callipygian, tintinnabulation, prestidigitation, anhedonia, coprolalia, parapraxis and 15 more...
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Potpourri
eponymous, aa, pulchritude, gizmo, macabre, sui generis, solecism, solipsism, eldritch, samizdat, queue, obsequious and 469 more...
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Infinite Jest
Words taken from Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.
prorector, monograph, post-fourier, snuffle, rototremble, creatus, enfilade, subanimalistic, balletic, espadrilles, leonine, cirri and 1153 more...
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misterspee's Words
prolepsis, cumin, nacreous, lucre, obstreperous, nibble, nubbin, kenosis, frangible, aposiopesis, synecdoche, persiflage and 144 more...
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Not Quite As Awful As They Sound
masticate, absquatulate, adumbrate, afflatus, fetial, anile, bilabial, cineaste, smew, copse, piebald, testudinate and 156 more...
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Beastly adjectives
How would you describe your brother-in-law? Is he a tad bovine? Maybe there is something lacertilian about him? Or his business practices seem a little percesocine to you.
dasyproctine, tolypeutine, asinine, feline, canine, eusuchian, simian, musteline, cervine, caprine, percesocine, hirudine and 227 more...
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Papageno's Words, Pt. I
hobbledehoy, absquatulate, chthonic, prolix, ululate, internecine, verisimilitude, animadversion, concupiscence, vertiginous, cucullate, lucubrate and 1554 more...
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Valse's Words
fastidious, fervent, bellicose, personification, onomatopoeia, burly, concomitant, tempura, serendipity, pecuniary, foment, chum and 418 more...
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amcd56's Words
undisillusioned, truthiness, wikiality, nonunparallel, bafflegab, otiose, snarky, gynotikolobomasso..., battology, unasinous, zaftig, mumbo-jumbo and 122 more...
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rememberers
prolix, ageusia, animadversion, anodyne, antic, arabesque, beadle, brachymetropia, colophon, desquamation, diaphoresis, diegesis and 3255 more...
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Odessa's Words
defenestration, decathect, effulgent, taciturn, ataraxia, coprophagous, nyctitropic, pernicious, paradox, anachronism, synesthesia, cacophony and 223 more...
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Words that sound dirty, but aren't
Inspired by a Candid Camera sketch.
horehound, fugue, ramrod, jocular, thespian, titmouse, masticate, pussyfoot, angina, booby, formicate, hoar and 64 more...
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entendres r us
innocent words that sound really naughty
perfervid, titillate, formicate, poppycock, flapdoodle, cockeyed, vulgate, cuirass, nincompoop, coxcomb, jackass, conurbation and 10 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for formicate.

arby Hey, thank Geo - s/he listed it. I'm just the one who provided the cite. Jun 22, 2007
reesetee You may be right, oroboros--I'm no pismirologist. ;-) Jun 21, 2007
oroboros re: formic acid. I thought ants were MADE of formic acid, i.e., main constituent of their exoskeletons. Now I'm gonna haf to fine out... Jun 21, 2007
oroboros How 'bout pismigrate? ;o) Jun 21, 2007
trivet I *love* this word! Thank you, arby. Jun 21, 2007
reesetee So related to formic acid, which is secreted by ants. Sure doesn't *sound* ant-related. :-) Jun 21, 2007
arby I thought Ninjawords was having a larff but Webster's agrees:
To creep or crawl like ants; swarm with, or as with, ants.
An open space which formicated with peasantry. --Lowell.
Genius!! Jun 21, 2007
arby What does it mean?
signed, too lazy to Bartleby Jun 21, 2007