rodent dropping
1
7.0
- noun
- /ˈroʊdənt ˈdrɑpɪŋ/
:
excremento de roedores
- But in this part of the Southwest, rodent droppings have been known to harbor hantavirus, a potentially deadly disease you can catch by inhaling the dust that surrounds the waste.
Examples
-
Rodent droppings are often a sign of an infestation in your home.
-
Ah, but in this space he found some rodent droppings.
Academic text (2009) -
Upon examination, the rodent droppings turned out to be old.
Academic text (2009) -
And in Thomas's cell—rodent droppings!
Fiction book (1995) -
When cleaning the attic, we discovered several rodent droppings near the corner.
-
It is important to properly dispose of rodent droppings to prevent any health risks.
Synonyms
4
8.8
The droppings of a wild animal that show what it eats
Small piles or pellets of animal poop
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase combines a clear head noun ('rodent') with 'dropping(s)', which commonly denotes animal excrement, so the meaning 'excrement of a rodent' is largely compositional if the learner recognizes the noun sense of 'dropping'. However, 'dropping' is polysemous (also meaning 'falling') and the excrement sense is a specific collocational use (e.g., 'bird/mouse droppings'), so a B1 learner who only knows the basic 'falling' sense may not predict the intended meaning without exposure.
Etymology
Rodent dropping is a very literal phrase: rodent means a small animal like a mouse or rat and dropping means what it leaves behind. People use it to talk about the small hard 'poo' that shows mice or rats are in a place.