Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- Ant-eating: specifically, of or pertaining to the Myrmecophagidæ.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective (Biol.) feeding on ants but usually not living with them.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective pertaining to the
anteater - adjective feeding on ants
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective feeding on ants
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From myrmeco- + -phagous.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word myrmecophagous.
Examples
-
For ant-eating, you can say "formicivorous" or "myrmecophagous", but don't take half of one and half of the other.
-
Thus the extremes of carnivorous adaptation, as in the case of the cats, of omnivorous adaptation, as in the case of the bears, of herbivorous adaptation, as in the case of the horses, or myrmecophagous adaptation, as in the case of the anteaters, are all secondary "(_loc.cit. _, pp. 23-4).
Form and Function A Contribution to the History of Animal Morphology
qms commented on the word myrmecophagous
Big Bird, on a new diet slant,
Suggests that his pal eat an ant,
But Ol’ Snuffleupagus
Is not myrmecophagous.
He tries to comply but he can’t.
June 22, 2018