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slave-making ant

American

[sleyv-mey-king] / ˈsleɪvˌmeɪ kɪŋ /

noun

an ant of a species that raids the colonies of other ant species, carrying off larvae and pupae to be reared as slave ants.

Etymology

Origin of slave-making ant

First recorded in 1810–20

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Formica sanguinea was likewise first discovered by P. Huber to be a slave-making ant.

From On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection, or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life by Darwin, Charles

If we had not known of any other slave-making ant, it would have been hopeless to speculate how so wonderful an instinct could have been perfected.

From The Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection, 6th Edition by Darwin, Charles

He selects three cases which he found it specially hard to deal with: that of the cuckoo, that of the cell-building bee, and of the slave-making ant.

From What is Darwinism? by Hodge, Charles

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023