cockroach

[ kok-rohch ]

noun

1. any of numerous orthopterous insects of the family Blattidae, characterized by a flattened body, rapid movements, and nocturnal habits and including several common household pests.

cockroach

/ ˈkɒkˌrəʊtʃ /

noun

1. See mantis, German cockroach
   any insect of the suborder Blattodea (or Blattaria ), such as Blatta orientalis ( oriental cockroach or black beetle ): order Dictyoptera . See also German cockroach mantis

Word History and Origins

Origin of cockroach¹

1615–25; < Spanish cucaracha, of uncertain origin, assimilated by folk etymology to cock ¹, roach ²

Word History and Origins

Origin of cockroach¹

C17: from Spanish cucaracha, of obscure origin

Example Sentences

Tobler soon laid out her case that cockroaches were either sleeping or doing something very like it.

From Quanta Magazine

This frustrated Irene Tobler, a sleep physiologist working at the University of Zurich in the late 1970s, who had begun to study the behavior of cockroaches, curious whether invertebrates like insects sleep as mammals do.

From Quanta Magazine

Some companies charge $175 or less for a single treatment for cockroaches, while others charge $300 or more.

From Washington Post

To give the food-catching silk a good workout, researchers used big cockroaches.

From Science News For Students

To give the food-catching silk an extreme workout, researchers used big cockroaches.

From Science News

She suffered no more beatings—just solitary confinement in an underground cell always dark and dank and cockroach-infested.

From The Daily Beast

It was also full of s--t, a coach scrambling like a cockroach.

From The Daily Beast

Cockroach begins with a failed suicide attempt by the protagonist.

From The Daily Beast

It has been, for Dobbs, a Kafka-like metamorphosis from WASPy establishmentarian to angry-populist cockroach.

From The Daily Beast

Some who would face a mad bull coolly enough spring with disgust from a cockroach or a centipede.

From Project Gutenberg

The earthworm, the cockroach, and the bed-bug are regarded as peculiarly disgusting, and all have a particularly offensive odour.

From Project Gutenberg

Captain Downs bestowed on Mayo about the same attention he would have allowed to a galley cockroach.

From Project Gutenberg

Alluding to the fact that the cockroach likes to eat other roaches, he said why not breed a roach that wouldn't eat anything else?

From Project Gutenberg

But when England began trading with the Orient, the cockroach grew venturesome, and began putting to sea as a stowaway.

From Project Gutenberg

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