silverfish
3
6.9
- noun
- /ˈsɪlvərˌfɪʃ/
:
cucaracha de papel
- It seemed to Hap that all these memories were grotesque, like the old photos he'd found once in his basement at home, pictures half-eaten by silverfish.
- roaches and silverfish
Examples
-
For months at a time, the family has withstood plague-like infestations by termites, rats, silverfish, snakes, and carpenter ants.
Fiction book (2000) -
Now, with the exception of a few silverfish in the men's room, this restaurant is now vermin free.
-
What I didn't know was that those encyclopedias were infested with silverfish.
Academic text (2004) -
I live in Connecticut, and we have silverfish and other insects that love the paste used for wallpaper and drywall.
Blog text (31) -
Wentworth opened it, noting with distaste the foxing of the pages and the emergence of a fat, squirming silverfish from what was left of the binding.
Fiction book (2002) -
They worked through the morning in amiable companionship, turning up occasional interesting passages, the odd silverfish, and recurrent clouds of dust, but little of value to the project at hand.
Fiction book (1992) -
I found a silverfish crawling between the pages of my old book.
-
The silverfish chewed through the paper in my attic, damaging several documents.
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After discovering silverfish in my closet, I cleaned out my clothes to prevent any damage.
Synonyms
A small silver-grey insect without wings that eats glue in books and starchy things
A small wingless insect like a silverfish with a flat silvery body
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Silverfish for the small house insect comes from silver ('shiny grey colour') and fish, because it looks silver and moves in a quick, fish-like way, so we call the insect a 'silverfish'.