carpenter ant
2
5.0
- noun
- /ˈkɑːrpəntər ænt/
:
hormiga carpintera
- Behind her, I smelled the old plaster and the sour dust that comes from carpenter ants eating the sills.
- carpenter ants and termites
- red carpenter ant
Examples
-
The IRFH household has an ongoing battle with carpenter ants.
Blog text (26) -
Carpenter ants come crawling up my ankles.
Fiction book (2000) -
If carpenter ants nest inside, it should get totally destroyed in about a year from the inside out; the floors will weaken, the framing will go, and the roof should fall in.
Blog text (2) -
Silent carpenter ants work away at the listing veranda, laboring endlessly at their hills of powdery decay.
Fiction book (2002) -
For months at a time, the family has withstood plague-like infestations by termites, rats, silverfish, snakes, and carpenter ants.
Fiction book (2000) -
The presence of carpenter ants in your home may indicate that there is decaying wood nearby.
-
She noticed carpenter ants crawling on the wooden fence, signaling it might need repairs.
-
My one free-range hen loves to eat carpenter ants and termites.
How Damaging
Surface Forms
Morphology
carpenter + ant
The compound is transparently built from 'carpenter' (a person who works with wood) + 'ant' (an insect), so a learner can infer it refers to an ant associated with wood/woodworking (i.e., an ant that bores into or nests in wood). This modifier+noun pattern is common and cross-linguistically regular, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would likely understand the MWE.
Etymology
Carpenter ant gets its name from the way these ants make tunnels in wood like a carpenter working with wood. They do not eat the wood but hollow it out to make a 'nest', so the name refers to this wood work.