field cricket
- noun
- /fiːld ˈkrɪkɪt/
- US
Examples
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A cage for field crickets.
Fiction book (1996) -
The field cricket chirped loudly during the warm summer nights.
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Farmers often notice when field crickets invade their crops, as they can cause damage.
-
In North America, the sound of field crickets is a familiar sign of the changing seasons.
Synonyms
A small jumping insect whose male makes a chirping sound by rubbing its wings together
A black cricket from the Americas that damages crops and sometimes enters houses
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun phrase 'field cricket' is compositionally built from 'field' (a plot of land) + 'cricket' (the insect) to indicate a cricket associated with fields, so its meaning is directly inferable from the constituents. This type of noun-noun compounding to show habitat or type is common in English and across languages, making it immediately understandable to a B1 learner who knows both words.
Etymology
The name field cricket shows a simple picture: field tells the place and cricket is the little insect. So, it means 'the common dark cricket you hear chirping in fields that can sometimes damage crops or come into houses'.