Definitions

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

  • adjective Of or relating to ants.
  • adjective Of, derived from, or containing formic acid.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pertaining to, produced by, derived from, or characteristic of ants. Also formicic.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective (Chem.) Pertaining to, or derived from, ants; ; in an extended sense, pertaining to, or derived from, formic acid.
  • adjective carbamic acid.
  • adjective a colorless, mobile liquid, HCO.OH, of a sharp, acid taste, occurring naturally in ants, nettles, pine needles, etc., and produced artifically in many ways, as by the oxidation of methyl alcohol, by the reduction of carbonic acid or the destructive distillation of oxalic acid. It is the first member of the fatty acids in the paraffin series, and is homologous with acetic acid.

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

  • adjective Of or pertaining to ants.
  • adjective organic chemistry Of, pertaining to or derived from formic acid (or from methane).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective of or containing or derived from formic acid
  • adjective of or relating to or derived from ants

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Latin formīca, ant.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin formica ("ant").

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Examples

  • The California Highway Patrol indicates that the tanker was carrying a corrosive material known as formic acid.

    CNN Transcript Jan 27, 2006 2006

  • The ERC process, "the Electrochemical Reduction of Carbon Dioxide," combines captured carbon dioxide with water to produce high value materials, such as formic acid and formate salts, which are conventionally obtained from the thermochemical processing of Fossil Fuels.

    Marketwire - Breaking News Releases 2010

  • The ERC process, 'the Electrochemical Reduction of Carbon Dioxide', combines captured carbon dioxide with water to produce high value materials, such as formic acid and formate salts, which are conventionally obtained from the thermochemical processing of Fossil Fuels.

    EarthToys Alternative Energy News 2009

  • The ERC process, "the Electrochemical Reduction of Carbon Dioxide", combines captured carbon dioxide with water to produce high value materials, such as formic acid and formate salts, which are conventionally obtained from the thermochemical processing of fossil Fuels.

    unknown title 2009

  • These ants first blind them by spraying formic acid on their eyes.

    Ants vs. Crab 2009

  • These ants first blind them by spraying formic acid on their eyes.

    Ants vs. Crab » E-Mail 2009

  • We've discovered that another hive is afflicted with a parasitic mite with the terrifying name Varroa destructor Next week we plan to treat them with formic acid, an organic chemical control.

    Dave Snyder: Farm Report: Starting The Year From Seed 2010

  • Presumably the lipid et cetera material that clad the first cellular like inorganic open vent vacuoles of materials such as ZnS less likely the organic destructive FeS originated from Fischer-Tropsch like processes instead of Zn world photosynthesis of CO2 to formic acid.

    New Results from Stardust Mission Paint Chaotic Picture of Early Solar System | Universe Today 2010

  • Then again, the absence of a preferred chemosynthesis pathway that formic acid photosynthesis impress, means that the old "chicken-and-egg" paradox of "what came first, enzymes or metabolism" that it promise to resolve remains.

    New Results from Stardust Mission Paint Chaotic Picture of Early Solar System | Universe Today 2010

  • We've discovered that another hive is afflicted with a parasitic mite with the terrifying name Varroa destructor Next week we plan to treat them with formic acid, an organic chemical control.

    Dave Snyder: Farm Report: Starting The Year From Seed 2010

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