hornet

[ hawr-nit ]

noun

1. any large, stinging paper wasp of the family Vespidae, as Vespa crabro giant hornet, introduced into the U.S. from Europe, or Vespula maculata bald-faced hornet, or white-faced hornet, of North America.

hornet

/ ˈhɔːnɪt /

noun

1. any of various large social wasps of the family Vespidae, esp Vespa crabro of Europe, that can inflict a severe sting
2. hornet's nest
   hornet's nest a strongly unfavourable reaction (often in the phrase stir up a hornet's nest )

Word History and Origins

Origin of hornet¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English harnete, Old English hyrnet(u); cognate with Old High German hornaz (becoming German Horniss ); akin to horn

Word History and Origins

Origin of hornet¹

Old English hyrnetu; related to Old Saxon hornut, Old High German hornuz

Idioms and Phrases

see mad as a hornet ; stir up a hornet's nest .

Example Sentences

A writhing ball of bees “cooks” or smothers a hornet to death, says Mattila.

From Science News For Students

She wanted to know whether I’d figured out how to make our little patch of Amandola a no-fly zone for hornets.

From Fortune

Inside a walk-in cooler, where the cold temperatures stunted the insects’ mobility, the scientists cracked the tree open with a sledgehammer and collected hornets at various stages of life.

From Washington Post

That hornet spread at an average rate of about 100 kilometers per year.

From Science News

He’s a hornet specialist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

From Science News For Students

Pulling engineers from the Super Hornet program then led to a maintenance backlog on that program too, sources said.

From The Daily Beast

The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps also use the supersonic F/A-18 Hornet strike fighter to guide other jets to their targets.

From The Daily Beast

Was The Green Hornet an example of a Hollywood film where you lost your power in the editing room?

From The Daily Beast

But that's abstract enough to allow people to read into it what they will and avoid the hornet's nest of contemporary politics.

From The Daily Beast

With his chunky-to-hunky transformation into the Green Hornet, the Rogenator, pretty surprisingly, is no exception.

From The Daily Beast

But after it all, he asked me to marry him, and was as mad as a hornet, and said dreadful things to me when I refused him.

From Project Gutenberg

War broke out soon afterward and he became an officer on the Hornet, though still only a boy.

From Project Gutenberg

Do you know how a hornet behaves when a mischievous boy throws a stone at its nest?

From Project Gutenberg

When the Constitution went south to Brazil at that time the Hornet went with her, but they soon parted.

From Project Gutenberg

The Chesapeake was taken in just fifteen minutes, one minute more than the Hornet had taken to capture the Peacock.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

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