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Glite Dictionary
🙄 An annoying person 🪶 Unimportant 🐜 A small ant
pissant

pissant

1 9.9
A small ant that gives a strong bad smell when crushed
  • noun
  • /ˈpɪsænt/
  • US
translation icon : chinche
  • Burl stared at the clouds, at the pissants crawling through the brown cedar needles.

Examples

  • The kids laughed as they watched the pissants swarm around the fallen food.

  • After stepping on the pissant, he quickly regretted it due to the foul smell it released.

  • I guess we finally got rid of those little pissants, huh?

    The Hollywood Knights (1980)

  • Run, you little pissants, run!

    The Last Picture Show (1971)

  • Why don't you stomp you foot and chase those pissants off?

    The Klansman (1974)

  • Can you be sure that one of those little pissant Iranian boats won't be loaded with explosives and ram one of our ships?

    Blog text (4)

  • At the far left perimeter was a clearing packed with rides, and the pissant menagerie was situated at the front, under a colonnade of live oaks.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • She noticed a few pissants crawling across the picnic table, leaving a terrible odor.

Synonyms

stinkbug
vspissant
  • US
1 4.4

A small bug that makes a strong bad smell when scared

smells strongly only when crushed rather than releasing odor defensively

Surface Forms

pissant singular
pissants plural

Morphology

pissant = piss + ant (semi-transparent) = piss + ant

The form is transparently 'piss' + 'ant', but the specific referent (a particular small ant with a distinctive smell) and vulgar connotation are not fully predictable to all learners.

Etymology

Pissant for the insect comes from the parts piss ('to pee') and ant ('a small insect'), since these ants give off a sharp, unpleasant smell when crushed. That's why a pissant is a name for a very small, smelly ant.