gnat
pronunciation
How to pronounce gnat in British English:
UK [næt]
How to pronounce gnat in American English:
US [næt]
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- Noun:
- any of various small biting flies: midges; biting midges; black flies; sand flies
- British usage
Word Origin
- gnat (n.)
- Old English gnæt "gnat, midge, small flying insect," earlier gneat, from Proto-Germanic *gnattaz (cognates: Low German gnatte, German Gnitze); perhaps literally "biting insect" and related to gnaw. The gnatte is a litil fflye, and hatte culex he soukeþ blood and haþ in his mouþ a pipe, as hit were a pricke. And is a-countid a-mong volatiles and greueþ slepinge men wiþ noyse & wiþ bytinge and wakeþ hem of here reste. [John of Trevisa, translation of Bartholomew de Glanville's "De proprietatibus rerum," 1398] Gnat-catcher, insectivorous bird of the U.S. woodlands, is from 1823.
Example
- 1. Blind guides , who strain out the gnat but swallow the camel !
- 2. Chess is a sea in which a gnat may drink and an elephant may bathe .
- 3. But I have the willpower of the average gnat and I think I only gave up because people were so shocked to see a pregnant woman smoking that I had to .
- 4. You are less than a gnat to me .
- 5. There is a gnat bite on my hand .