Definitions

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

  • noun Any of various woodlice, especially of the genera Oniscus and Porcellio, that lack the ability of pillbugs to roll into a ball.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A hog-louse; a pill-bug; a sow; any terrestrial isopod of the family Oniscidæ, as Oniscus asellus. Some sow-bugs can roll themselves up into a ball like a tiny armadillo. See sow, n., 2, and cut under Oniscus.

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

  • noun A woodlouse.

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

  • noun terrestrial isopod having an oval segmented body (a shape like a sow)

Etymologies

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

[From its piglike shape.]

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Examples

  • It's so large, in comparison to its land-dwelling relative, the familiar and even slightly cute pillbug or sowbug, because of the phenomenon of deep sea gigantism, which also gives rise to the giant squid.

    April 2010 2010

  • In sections of low-gradient rivers, beds of aquatic vegetation provide habitat for crustaceans, particularly scuds and the aquatic sowbug.

    Trout and Salmon of North America Robert J. Behnke 2002

  • In sections of low-gradient rivers, beds of aquatic vegetation provide habitat for crustaceans, particularly scuds and the aquatic sowbug.

    Trout and Salmon of North America Robert J. Behnke 2002

  • In sections of low-gradient rivers, beds of aquatic vegetation provide habitat for crustaceans, particularly scuds and the aquatic sowbug.

    Trout and Salmon of North America Robert J. Behnke 2002

  • I tip over the stump holding the squirrel feeder and grab a sowbug, crushing it between my fingers.

    grouse Diary Entry grouse 2002

  • In sections of low-gradient rivers, beds of aquatic vegetation provide habitat for crustaceans, particularly scuds and the aquatic sowbug.

    Trout and Salmon of North America Robert J. Behnke 2002

  • From before, the ship reminded him of a fat sowbug.

    A Fire Upon the Deep Vinge, Vernor 1992

  • The writer has a cherry-stone in which is coiled up an insect, best known as the sowbug.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 324, March 18, 1882 Various

  • If there is pathos in this, there is bathos in his apostrophe to the millipede, beginning "Poor sowbug!" and eulogizing the healing virtues of that odious little beast; of which he tells us to take "half a pound, putt 'em alive into a quart or two of wine," with saffron and other drugs, and take two ounces twice a day.

    Complete Project Gutenberg Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Works Oliver Wendell Holmes 1851

  • If there is pathos in this, there is bathos in his apostrophe to the millipede, beginning "Poor sowbug!" and eulogizing the healing virtues of that odious little beast; of which he tells us to take "half a pound, putt 'em alive into a quart or two of wine," with saffron and other drugs, and take two ounces twice a day.

    Medical Essays, 1842-1882 Oliver Wendell Holmes 1851

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