cochineal insect

American  

noun

1. any of various small red scale insects of the family Dactylopiidae, related to the mealybugs and characterized by an oval segmented body with white waxy plates and short legs and antennae: the source of cochineal.

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Etymology

Origin of cochineal insect

First recorded in 1795–1805

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cochineal insect

It is cultivated for rearing the cochineal insect.

From Catalogue of Economic Plants in the Collection of the U. S. Department of Agriculture by Saunders, William

Crimson and carmine, both of them ultimately from Old Spanish, are not quite doublets, but both belong to kermes, the cochineal insect, of Arabic origin.

From The Romance of Words (4th ed.) by Weekley, Ernest

The cochineal insect, a species which has the habit of feeding upon the cactus, is used for a dye stuff, for which service the brightly colored body is appropriated.

From Domesticated Animals Their Relation to Man and to his Advancement in Civilization by Shaler, Nathaniel Southgate

The crimson portion owes its hue to being steeped in a bath with the little cochineal insect; and the blue to indigo.

From Tales of the Toys, Told by Themselves by Broderip, Frances Freeling

Meal′y-bug, a small species of cochineal insect covered with a while powdery substance resembling meal or flour.—adj.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M) by Various