ant bedn.
/ˈant bɛd/, U.S. /ˈænt ˌbɛd/ 1. = anthill n. In later use U.S. regional and Australian.
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the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > order Hymenoptera > [noun] > suborder Apocrita, Petiolata, or Heterophaga > group Aculeata (stinging) > ant > that form ant-hills > ant-hill
anthilleOE
ant bedeOE
pismire hill1440
maur-hill?c1475
maur house?c1475
ant heap1591
molehill1610
ant-hillock1656
bank1667
sprout hill1766
formicary1816
ant mound1830
formicarium1834
eOE Leechbk. (Royal) (1865) iii. xlvii. 338 Genim æmetbed mid ealle, þara þe hwilum fleogað, beoþ reade, wyl on wætre.
1803 W. B. Johnson Hist. Progr. & Present State Animal Chem. II. 51 He was standing over an ant-bed, in order to procure some of the insects.
1846 Sydney Morning Herald 22 June 2/5 They discovered five ant beds, which had been hollowed out to make ovens.
1935 F. Birtles Battle Fronts Outback xi. 182 One [bull] was amusing himself by driving his powerful horns into a big ant-bed.
1975 X. Herbert Poor Fellow my Country (1977) i. 12 A profusion of small spiked grey termites' nests, or Ant Beds, as called in these parts.
2014 M. J. Guillory Red Now & Laters i. 10 I fell into an ant bed.
2. Chiefly Australian. The mixture of earth or clay and organic matter of which termite mounds are formed, which was formerly used to make a simple flooring material and mortar.
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1897 Agric. Jrnl. (Dept. Agric. Cape Good Hope) 4 Feb. 142 ‘Ant bed’, broken up and spread over the floor of the silo..,is as excellent for this purpose as it is cheap.
1930 J. S. Litchfield Far-north Memories iii. 20 The ant-bed floors needed only a daily damping and sweeping to be kept in perfect order.
1965 Bulletin (Sydney) 13 Feb. 39/2 They scarcely had a timbered floor between them, since ant-bed and cow dung make a wonderful foundation for a home.
2007 M. Houldsworth From Gulf to God knows Where: Maybe It'll Rain Tomorrow (2012) II. 3 Mum made the walls of antbed and stone.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, June 2016; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.eOE