water flea

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noun

any of various small crustaceans that move about in the water like fleas, as those of the genus Daphnia.

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Origin of water flea

First recorded in 1575–85

Words nearby water flea

waterfall development, water-fast, water feather, waterfinder, water flag, water flea, waterflood, Waterford, Waterford glass, water fountain, waterfowl

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use water flea in a sentence

The foot clings to a surface underwater — a plant or a rock, perhaps — and the mouth, ringed with tentacles, ensnares passing water fleas.
Sleep Evolved Before Brains. Hydras Are Living Proof.|Veronique Greenwood|May 18, 2021|Quanta Magazine
The spiny water flea has been latching onto fishing equipment, traveling the Great Lakes for decades, but now they are being transported to some of the most pristine waters in the Upper Midwest.
A spiky flea could ruin Midwestern ecosystems and kill native fish|By Abi Cole/Outdoor Life|February 17, 2021|Popular-Science
Spiny water fleas also bring a million-dollar public recreation problem.
A spiky flea could ruin Midwestern ecosystems and kill native fish|By Abi Cole/Outdoor Life|February 17, 2021|Popular-Science
Like most damaging invasive species, spiny water fleas reproduce rapidly.
A spiky flea could ruin Midwestern ecosystems and kill native fish|By Abi Cole/Outdoor Life|February 17, 2021|Popular-Science

I have already spoken of the fresh-water shrimp and the water-flea (Daphnia pulex).
Amateur Fish Culture|Charles Edward Walker
In short, she was a branchiopod, to be vulgarly precise, a water-flea.
"Wee Tim'rous Beasties"|Douglas English
The water-flea, Daphnia (a crustacean), lays two kinds of eggs known as “summer” and “winter” eggs.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 1|Various

British Dictionary definitions for water flea

water flea

noun

any of numerous minute freshwater branchiopod crustaceans of the order Cladocera, which swim by means of hairy branched antennaeSee also daphnia

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012