giant cockroach
1
5.9
- noun
- /ˈdʒaɪənt ˈkɑkroʊtʃ/
- US
:
cucaracha gigante
- During our hike in the rainforest, we encountered a giant cockroach resting on a leaf.
Examples
-
His splashing roused giant cockroaches from the tunnel.
Fiction book (2002) -
I didn't panic too much at the sight of the giant cockroach on the door, but little Nana still snickered at my reaction as she killed it for me with her flip-flop.
Academic text (2009) -
And that was the way Gerald thought of Fenton, the giant cockroach, even now.
Fiction book (1998) -
The water was warm and inhabited by giant cockroaches and blind carp.
Fiction book (2002) -
"Gregor Samsa awoke one morning to discover... ...that he had been transformed into a giant cockroach."
-
James and Dee had come to the country as first-generation immigrants, both raised in suburban Houston, where crows and giant cockroaches constituted wildlife.
Fiction book (1991) -
The giant cockroach scurried across the kitchen floor, startling everyone in the room.
-
In the tropical jungle, giant cockroaches are often seen emerging from their hiding spots at night.
Synonyms
A group of large cockroaches from Central and South America that include giant ones
How Big
- US
1
5.9
140
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a very large cockroach' is directly and compositionally derived from the adjective 'giant' modifying the noun 'cockroach', following a standard adjective+noun pattern. Even if it sometimes refers to a particular large species, the sense is predictable for a B1 learner who knows both constituent words and is cross-linguistically common.
Etymology
Giant cockroach comes from a simple, literal image: people joined giant and cockroach to name the very large roaches they saw in tropical forests. So the name now means 'a large species of cockroach that lives in tropical parts of the Americas'.