pismire
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of pismire
1350–1400; Middle English pissemyre, equivalent to pisse to urinate + obsolete mire ant, perhaps < Scandinavian (compare Danish myre, Swedish myra ), cognate with Dutch mier; pejorative name from stench of formic acid proper to ants
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.
All of us are able to smell ants, for which the great word pismire was originally coined.
From Literature
I never saw her again; that was fate, or...to never see the wanted is that phenomenal blindness; to never have the beauty is pismire.
From Project Gutenberg
Then why do you squirm at the minute catastrophe of a few thousands or150 millions of pismires crushed under the wheels of evolution.
From Project Gutenberg
An ancient name for the ant is “pismire,” probably a Danish word, from paid and myre, signifying such ants as live in hillocks.
From Project Gutenberg
He did not walk, he paced, as if he were stepping upon pismires, with his feet wide apart.
From Project Gutenberg
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.
