insect
23
9.1
- noun
- /ˈɪnˌsɛkt/
- Offensive
:
gusano
- - I said, shut up, you little insect.
- insect control
And I'm choosing my wife over your insects.
- And I'm choosing my wife over your insects.
Examples
-
Human beings are insects to me, Sonja.
-
The girl waved her scarf at the younger girls, as if at insects.
Fiction book (1993) -
You're nothing but an insect... ...like the rest.
-
We wait until that pathetic insect Twigleg reports back.
-
I know how repulsed you must be by us insects.
-
I felt like an insect about to hatch, confused and vulnerable after a painful metamorphosis.
Fiction book (1995) -
Members of the maligned group are equated with animals, vermin, insects, or diseases.
Academic text (2000) -
It's hard-it's hard for us, drab little bureaucratic insects that we are, not to be drawn into your powerful gravitational field.
-
You're nothing but an insect in this competitive world, always looking for attention.
-
In his eyes, we were just insects, unworthy of his time and effort.
Synonyms
132
8.5
A person who is sneaky and not worthy of respect
6
8.4
An unpleasant person who treats others badly or lies to them
1
8.4
An unpleasant person who annoys others
A person who is very unpleasant and treats others badly
Compounds
- Specialized
1
4.0
An insect that lives in a group called a colony and works together with others
- Specialized
Small insects that live on plants and suck plant sap, often with a waxy coating
- Specialized
An insect with two pairs of wings covered with tiny scales like butterflies and moths
- Specialized
An insect whose front wings are partly hard and partly soft, not fully hard like a beetle
- Specialized
An insect that sucks plant sap, with a long tube mouth and hard front wings at the base
- Archaic
An insect like an aphid or a cicada with thin clear front and back wings
- Specialized
An insect like a bee, wasp, or ant with two pairs of thin wings, often with a sting
- Specialized
An insect with four large clear wings showing a fine net of veins and small biting mouthparts, like a lacewing
- Specialized
A small soft insect with parts for chewing that often has no wings or two pairs of wings
- Specialized
An insect like a grasshopper or cricket with firm front wings, thin back wings, and mouth parts for chewing
- Specialized
A small thin insect with narrow wings that have tiny hairs on the edges
- Specialized
A small wingless insect with a long body and three long bristly tails
- Specialized
A small flying insect like a moth with hairy wings whose young live in water
A small jumping insect that lives in frothy bubbles on plant stems to protect its young
How Despicable
Surface Forms
Etymology
Insect is also used as an insult to call a person 'small' or 'unimportant'. A helpful way to remember this is that insects are tiny and easy to crush, so calling someone an insect means they are seen as beneath notice or contemptible.