white ant

¹ American  

noun

1. termite.

---

white-ant ² American  

[hwahyt-ant, wahyt-] / ˈʰwaɪtˌænt, ˈwaɪt- /

verb (used with object)

Australian Informal.

1. to undermine or subvert from within.

---

white ant British  

noun

1. another name for termite

---

Etymology

Origin of white ant¹

First recorded in 1675–85

Origin of white-ant²

First recorded in 1915–20

Example Sentences

Oddly enough, this tribal art owes much of its vitality to the wood-eating white ant of Africa.

From Time Magazine Archive

They also came upon a bank, in their course, in which was a nest belonging to a large species of white ant.

From On the Banks of the Amazon by Groome, William H. C.

The white ant, which is so destructive to the ordinary wooden pile, does not attack it.

From The Critic in the Orient by Fitch, George Hamlin

The lion and the tiger no longer reign in the jungle nor the white ant in the Pampas.

From Twentieth Century Socialism What It Is Not; What It Is: How It May Come by Kelly, Edmond

Our white ant "Fifi" has just bitten through her collar and run away.

From Punch, or the London Charivari, May 6, 1914 by Seaman, Owen, Sir