carpenter ant
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noun
a black or brown ant of the genus Camponotus that nests in the wood of decaying or dead trees in which it bores tunnels for depositing its eggs.
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Nearby words
Origin of carpenter ant
First recorded in 1880–85
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for carpenter ant
One kind of carpenter-ant covers its walls with a mixture of sawdust, earth, and spiders' webs.
The Adventures of a Grain of Dust|Hallam HawksworthAmong these are the two large species of carpenter-ant before mentioned, which work in stumps or fallen timber.
The carpenter-ant has no moral sense, and is not amenable either to kindness or blows.
Falling in Love|Grant Allen