Vermin
['vɜːmɪn] or ['vɝmɪn]
Definition
(noun.) any of various small animals or insects that are pests; e.g. cockroaches or rats; 'cereals must be protected from mice and other vermin'; 'he examined the child's head for vermin'; 'boys in the village have probably been shooting vermin'.
(noun.) an irritating or obnoxious person.
Checker: Phyllis--From WordNet
Definition
(n. sing. & pl.) An animal, in general.
(n. sing. & pl.) A noxious or mischievous animal; especially, noxious little animals or insects, collectively, as squirrels, rats, mice, flies, lice, bugs, etc.
(n. sing. & pl.) Hence, in contempt, noxious human beings.
Checker: Sabina
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. pl. Noxious animals (of small size).
Checker: Roland
Definition
n.sing. and pl. a worm: a name for all obnoxious insects as bugs fleas and lice; troublesome animals such as mice rats; animals destructive to game such as weasels polecats also hawks and owls: any contemptible person or such collectively.—v.i. Ver′mināte to breed vermin.—ns. Verminā′tion; Ver′min-kill′er.—adj. Ver′minous infested with worms: like vermin.—adv. Ver′minously.
Checker: Marge
Unserious Contents or Definition
Vermin crawling in your dreams, signifies sickness and much trouble. If you succeed in ridding yourself of them, you will be fairly successful, but otherwise death may come to you, or your relatives. See Locust.
Checker: Mollie
Examples
- He's happen gone to visit some poor body in a sick gird, or he's happen hunting down vermin in another direction. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- And vermin may be silent,' said Eugene. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- And for every beggar in America, Italy can show a hundred--and rags and vermin to match. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- To hunt down vermin is a noble occupation, fit for an archbishop. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- He also relieved the monotony of office-work by fitting up the battery circuits to play jokes on his fellow-operators, and to deal with the vermin that infested the premises. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- How the vermin-tortured vagabonds did swarm! Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- That was all the chamber held, exclusive of rats and other unseen vermin, in addition to the seen vermin, the two men. Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
- The passage to the Conciergerie was short and dark; the night in its vermin-haunted cells was long and cold. Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities.
- There was nothing but pickled vermin, and drawers full of blue-bottles and moths, with no carpet on the floor. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- This new, simple, and cheap preparation makes no stain and kills the vermin immediately. William K. David. Secrets of Wise Men, Chemists and Great Physicians.
- It attracts them by its luminous appearance and also by its odor, which is very attractive to all vermin. William K. David. Secrets of Wise Men, Chemists and Great Physicians.
- Perfectly secure from human audience, I acted my part before the garret-vermin. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- Thus, there seems to be little doubt that the stock of partridges, grouse, and hares on any large estate depends chiefly on the destruction of vermin. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
Editor: Whitney