emmet

¹ American  

[em-it] / ˈɛm ɪt /

noun

Chiefly Dialect.

1. an ant.

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Emmet ² American  

[em-it] / ˈɛm ɪt /

noun

1. Robert, 1778–1803, Irish patriot.

2. a male given name.

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emmet ¹ British  

/ ˈɛmɪt /

noun

1. an archaic or dialect word for ant

2. dialect a tourist or holiday-maker

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Emmet ² British  

/ ˈɛmɪt /

noun

1. Robert. 1778–1803, Irish nationalist, executed for leading an uprising for Irish independence

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Etymology

Origin of emmet

before 900; Middle English emete, Old English ǣmette ant

Example Sentences

I am an emmet, that mankind shall tread under foot; not a hornet, that they shall complain of my sting.

From The Persian Literature, Comprising The Shah Nameh, The Rubaiyat, The Divan, and The Gulistan, Volume 2 by Ross, James

Once a dream did weave a shade O’er my angel-guarded bed, That an emmet lost its way Where on grass methought I lay.

From Songs of Innocence and Experience by Blake, William

When a little emmet, standing on its ant-hill, could get a peep into infinity, how could he think he saw a corner in it?-a retired corner?

From The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford — Volume 4 by Walpole, Horace

The learned Sanskritist, H. H. Wilson, quotes the name Pippilika = ant-gold, given by the people of Little Thibet to the precious dust thrown up in the emmet heaps.

From The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 10 by Burton, Richard Francis, Sir

To spend his time in idle song, The thoughtless grasshopper was wrong; And not to give a small supply, The emmet mean and niggardly.

From Aesop, in Rhyme Old Friends in a New Dress by Park, Marmaduke