Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of various small, biting, two-winged flies, such as a punkie or black fly.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A small two-winged fly, Culex pipiens, of the family Culicidæ, suborder Nemocera, and order Diptera, called in America mosquito. The male has plumose antennæ and does not bite, though having a kind of rostrum or beak. The female bites with a stinging proboscis, and her antennæ are filiform and but slightly pilose. The larvæ and pupæ are aquatic. According to Westwood the term gnat should be restricted to insects of the family Culicidæ, and midge should be applied to the Chironomidæ.
- n. Any other insect of the family Culicidæ.—
- n. A nemocerous dipterous insect; a midge. There are several families. The Mycetophilidæ are known as fungus-gnats or agaric-gnats. The Cecidomyiidæ include the gall-gnats. The buffalo-gnat is a species of Simidium, family Simuliidæ (see cut under
Simulium ); other simuliids are known as black-gnats and turkey-gnats. Species of Bibionidæ and Chironomidæ are also called gnats. See the compounds and technical words. - n. A bird: same as knot.
Wiktionary
- n. Any small insect of the order Diptera, specifically within the suborder Nematocera.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zoöl.) A blood-sucking dipterous fly, of the genus Culex, undergoing a metamorphosis in water. The females have a proboscis armed with needlelike organs for penetrating the skin of animals. These are wanting in the males. In America they are generally called
mosquitoes . See mosquito. - n. Any fly resembling a Culex in form or habits; esp., in America, a small biting fly of the genus Simulium and allies, as the buffalo gnat, the black fly, etc.
WordNet 3.0
- n. (British usage) mosquito
- n. any of various small biting flies: midges; biting midges; black flies; sand flies
Etymologies
- Middle English, from Old English gnæt. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Palin also ridicules her former fiance, Levi Johnston who she describes as a "gnat ... constantly spreading false accusations against our family.”
“Swinging the sledgehammer to swat at a gnat is sure to cause some collateral damage.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » Immigrants and Nazis, Communists and Cardinals
“Palin's book, co-written by Nancy French, covers her family and her mom's run for vice president, but focuses on Johnston, whom she calls a "gnat ... constantly spreading false accusations" against her family.”
Bristol Palin Says She Lost Her Virginity While Drunk in New Memoir
“So please, please stop giving this woman an opportunity to bother us .... a gnat is less irritating!!”
“All I can say is that there has been a steady decline in British use of the word gnat in my lifetime.”
“The gnat is a case in point: the water-bug, common in our ponds and ditches, is another.”
“With what an air he added: 'E gia il moschino e conte' -- Already the gnat is a count. ”
“The larvae of the mosquito and the gnat are the favorite food of the trout in the wooded regions where those insects abound [106].”
Earth as Modified by Human Action, The~ Chapter 02 (historical)
“The gnat was the most cunning of all the army, and he, therefore, buzzed away into the forest where the enemy was encamped, and alighted on a leaf of the tree beneath which the watchword was given out.”
Childhood's Favorites and Fairy Stories The Young Folks Treasury, Volume 1
“The larvae of the mosquito and the gnat are the favorite food of the trout in the wooded regions where those insects abound.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘gnat’.
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See cut under
A list of words with definitions directing us to "see cut under" (or "see cut at") another definition (with hilarity occasionally ensuing).
Compare compare-cut-under.spider, scorpion, spoonbill, spur, tooth, feather, gnat, beard, gyrate, astragal, jog, countercheck and 92 more...
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animals (1 syllable)
A list of common animal names. Keep the list to 1 syllable words.No scientific names. No proper names like 'Fluffy' the elephant.Insects and other creatures (even ficticious) are welcome!You can ...
dog, cat, bear, bee, ass, ape, horse, squid, bug, hare, hawk, pig and 138 more...
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Things with wings
For fanciful birds, see reesetee's •Open List: Flights of Fancy.
For chickens, see Chickens.
For birds endemic to the United States and/or North America, see reesetee's Mo...airplane, dragonfly, pegasus, butterfly, Buffalo, robot bomb, periodical cicada, caduceus, angel, those flying monk..., cherub, housefly and 52 more...
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Starts with a silent letter
...with grateful thanks to telofy (for "cnidarian"), and to the song "Crazy ABC's" by Barenaked Ladies.
cnidarian, mnemonic, chthonic, ptarmigan, psoriasis, psittacine, bdellium, aisle, czar, gnarly, gnat, gnaw and 82 more...
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Words with that horrible 'gn' sound
pregnant, interregnum, impregnable, signal, signature, prognosis, ignorant, ignominious, magnum, diagnosis, designation, incognito and 37 more...
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Anagram Weapons
I'm looking for single-word anagrams of weapon names. Your additions are welcomed. A spoilt pilot's pistol to the best submitted.
This list was born when I noticed oppugn was an anagra...pagan, reaps, enraged, admires, repair, words, spoilt, pilots, ragged, flier, pears, oppugn and 20 more...
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web
maven, logolepsy, apperception, traduce, caldera, putative, lurid, avant-garde, teleology, heuristic, jugular, manducate and 13 more...
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Unfamiliar Words
dank, refrain, hostage, frigid, warden, atrocious, squirm, kinship, riot, counterfeit, stamped, scaffolding and 59 more...
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ROT13 Pairs
Nabbed from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROT-13#Letter_games_and_net_culture: words that become other existing words (or failing that, acronyms) when a Caesar shift of 13 places is applied to them.
aha, nun, ant, nag, balk, onyx, bar, one, barf, ones, be, or and 64 more...
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What's That Pokémon Name?
Words used to create the names of Pokémon, which are usually portmanteaux.
bulb, dinosaur, ivy, venus, char, salamander, squirt, turtle, blast, tortoise, water, caterpillar and 525 more...
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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and ...
Words that, as I see it, have some fond connection to the Alice stories through their creation or particular use by Lewis Carroll. I mean to tie them all together with contexty comments!
alice, daisy-chain, white rabbit, waistcoat-pocket, rabbit-hole, marmalade, antipathy, antipode, curtsey, dinah, tea-time, rat-hole and 232 more...
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Really Cool Four-Letter Words
I marvel at the amazing variety of four-letter words in the English language. And that's not even counting really common (to me) words like fuck.
ibis, pelf, sofa, iota, oboe, lava, icon, sped, puha, pulp, puma, kyat and 150 more...
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DYSLEXIC'S DREAD
Words That Make Sense in Reverse Too! Bad news for a dyslexic, 'cause s/he's got no clue if s/he read the word correctly or not, as opposed to a palindrome (i.e., no mistake possible, cf. "Dyslexic...
tool, lever, nap, pool, leer, leek, desserts, strop, doom, ukiah, yaws, ward and 213 more...
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ginnylev's Words
neuroplasticity, repudiate, scintilla, ruminate, tautology, ombudsman, exigent, filibuster, grace, ambidextrous, amends, disclosure and 623 more...
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animalia
Creatures with interesting names/lives.
salamander, badger, varmint, wombat, skink, tortoise, pika, gnu, pangolin, porpoise, serval, walrus and 53 more...
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Words & Phrases #2 (In Practice)
A list of new English words that I've come across.
egress, denote, tweak, think outside the..., scramble, predominantly, inflate, verdict, take on, diligent, potable, arbitrary and 46 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for gnat.
erinmckean according to Tony, "A gnat is inelegant code. It's not quite a bug." Sep 30, 2011
oroboros Tang in reverse. Nov 2, 2007