chigger
Americannoun
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Also called harvest mite, redbug. the six-legged larva of a mite of the family Trombiculidae, parasitic on humans and other vertebrates, sucking blood and causing severe itching and acting as a vector of scrub typhus and other infectious diseases.
noun
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Also called: chigoe. redbug. the parasitic larva of any of various free-living mites of the family Trombidiidae, which causes intense itching of human skin
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another name for the chigoe
Etymology
Origin of chigger
1735–45, variant of chigoe
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.
The IgE-mediated allergy is triggered after repeated bites from ticks or chigger mites that have bitten those mammals.
From Salon • May 9, 2024
The sand flea, also known as a chigger flea, is pretty gross.
From Science Magazine • Oct. 31, 2014
She looked like she had chigger bites on her chigger bites!
From New York Times • Feb. 3, 2011
By meal’s end, we were all comparing chigger infestations, and hers was by far the worst.
From New York Times • Feb. 3, 2011
The idea that one might dissect a chigger was also ridiculous in 1610—but, thanks to the microscope, that too would soon be possible.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
