yellow jacket
1
3.6
- noun
- /ˈjɛloʊ ˈdʒækɪt/
- US
:
avispa amarilla
- That was my first encounter of that kind; it did not prepare me for the encounter with yellow-jacket wasps in the garden on the hill.
- yellow jacket wasp
- yellow jacket nest
- yellow jacket colony
Examples
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During the picnic, a yellow jacket kept buzzing around our food, trying to steal a bite.
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This spring, we had yellow jackets build a ground nest right into the bottom of our compost pile.
Blog text (3) -
In the morning, no yellow jackets were around.
Fiction book (1990) -
I read up on yellow jackets.
Fiction book (1990) -
One day the yellow jackets were just gone.
Blog text (3) -
We're trapped by yellow jackets.
Fiction book (1990) -
Yellow jackets are a fact of nature.
Fiction book (1990) -
There I was, stung by a yellow-jacket wasp.
Fiction book (1990) -
I spotted a yellow jacket entering its nest in the ground.
-
Be careful when gardening; yellow jackets can become aggressive if their nest is disturbed.
Synonyms
45
1.0
A flying insect like a bee with a narrow waist and a sting, often yellow and black
1
4.6
A small aggressive wasp with yellow and black stripes that stings painfully
Surface Forms
Morphology
The drug sense cannot be derived from the constituents 'yellow' (a color) and 'jacket' (an outer garment or, in compound use, the wasp 'yellowjacket'); these literal meanings do not suggest a barbiturate. This is a slang/idiomatic naming and would not be predictable to a B1 learner who only knows the individual words.
Etymology
The noun yellow jacket names a small wasp whose bright yellow and black body looks like a tiny jacket, so the image helps you remember it is the stinging insect.