gnat

(năt)

Any of various tiny two-winged flies, especially those that sometimes form swarms.

[Middle English, from Old English gnæt.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

gnat

(næt)

(Animals) any of various small fragile biting dipterous insects of the suborder Nematocera, esp Culex pipiens (common gnat), which abounds near stagnant water

[Old English gnætt; related to Middle High German gnaz scurf, German dialect Gnitze gnat]

ˈgnatˌlike adj

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

gnat

(næt)

n.

any of certain small flies, esp. the biting gnats or punkies of the family Ceratopogonidae, the midges of the family Chironomidae, and the black flies of the family Simuliidae.

[before 900; Middle English; Old English gnæt(t), c. dial. German Gnatze]

gnat′ty, adj. -ti•er, -ti•est.

gnat

(năt)

Any of various small biting flies.

The American Heritage® Student Science Dictionary, Second Edition. Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	gnat - any of various small biting flies: midges; biting midges; black flies; sand flies dipteran, dipteron, dipterous insect, two-winged insects - insects having usually a single pair of functional wings (anterior pair) with the posterior pair reduced to small knobbed structures and mouth parts adapted for sucking or lapping or piercing biting midge, no-see-um, punkey, punkie, punky - minute two-winged insect that sucks the blood of mammals and birds and other insects midge - minute two-winged mosquito-like fly lacking biting mouthparts; appear in dancing swarms especially near water psychodid - a fly of the family Psychodidae Phlebotomus papatasii, sand fly, sandfly - any of various small dipterous flies; bloodsucking females can transmit sandfly fever and leishmaniasis black fly, buffalo gnat, blackfly - small blackish stout-bodied biting fly having aquatic larvae; sucks the blood of birds as well as humans and other mammals
	2.	gnat - (British usage) mosquito mosquito - two-winged insect whose female has a long proboscis to pierce the skin and suck the blood of humans and animals

gnat

noun

Related words
collective nouns swarm, cloud

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

Translations

ذُبابَه مّصّاصَة دم

komár

myg

kulo

hyttynensääski

szúnyog

mÿ; moskító

moscerino

culex

uodas

ods

komár

蚊蚋蠓虫

gnat

[næt] N → mosquito m, jején m (LAm)

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

gnat

[ˈnæt] n → moucheron m

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

gnat

n → (Stech)mücke f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

gnat

[næt] n → moscerino

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

gnat

(nat) noun

a very small, usually blood-sucking, fly.

gnat

n. [insect] jején.

gnat

n (type that bite) jején m, insecto parecido al mosquito pero más pequeño y que pica

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

But the beard seemed to melt away as she touched it, and she found herself sitting quietly under a tree--while the Gnat (for that was the insect she had been talking to) was balancing itself on a twig just over her head, and fanning her with its wings.

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The gnat, who was the most crafty, flew into the forest where the enemy was assembled, and hid herself beneath a leaf of the tree where the password was to be announced.

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A GNAT settled on the horn of a Bull, and sat there a long time.

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"And even couldst thou have broken through that formidable web, with thy gnat's wings, thou believest that thou couldst have reached the light?

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For he suffereth it not if a gnat wanteth to buzz, or even two of them; also the lanes maketh he lonesome, so that the moonlight is afraid there at night.

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It is like the dead-march of a gnat amid the trumpeting of elephants and the roaring of lions.

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He wiped the sweat from his face and tied the handkerchief around his neck to keep off the stinging gnats that lurked in the grass.

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The poisonous flies and gnats swarmed around by thousands; in vain one waved myrtle-branches about like mad; the audacious insect population did not cease to sting; nor was there a single person in the well-crammed carriage whose face was not swollen and sore from their ravenous bites.

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These dogs had a rather dry time of it; for they were tied to the benches and had no amusement for an hour or two at a time except what they could get out of pawing at the gnats, or trying to sleep and not succeeding.

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The postilions, with a thousand gossamer gnats circling about them in lieu of the Furies, quietly mended the points to the lashes of their whips; the valet walked by the horses; the courier was audible, trotting on ahead into the dun distance.

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The wild scene about me lay sleeping silently under the sun, and the only sound near me was the thin hum of some small gnats that had discovered me.

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Skirting along the north fork for a day or two, excessively annoyed by musquitoes and buffalo gnats, they reached, in the evening of the 17th, a small but beautiful grove, from which issued the confused notes of singing birds, the first they had heard since crossing the boundary of Missouri.

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