Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Zoology Having a stinger, as a bee or wasp.
- adjective Botany Having sharp prickles.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To make pointed; sharpen.
- In zoology, furnished with a sting; pertaining to or characteristic of the Aculeata.
- In botany, furnished with aculei or sharp prickles; aculeous.
- Figuratively, pointed; stinging.
- noun A hymenopterous insect, one of the Aculeata.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective (Zoöl.) Having a sting; covered with prickles; sharp like a prickle.
- adjective (Bot.) Having prickles, or sharp points; beset with prickles.
- adjective rare Severe or stinging; incisive.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Having a
sting ;sharp like a prickle. - adjective Having
prickles or sharp points. - adjective entomology Having a
stinger ;stinging .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective having or resembling a stinger or barb
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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The evolutionary origin and elaboration of sociality in the aculeate Hymenoptera: Maternal effects, sib-social effects, and heterochrony.
SuperCooperators Martin A. Nowak 2011
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He points out that all of the branches or groups technically called clades known to have primitively eusocial species—aculeate wasps, halictine and xylocopine bees, sponge-nesting shrimp, termopsid termites, colonial aphids and thrips, ambrosia beetles, and naked mole rats—rely on colonies that build and occupy defensible nests.
SuperCooperators Martin A. Nowak 2011
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Dispersed in the grasslands are trees of Crecentia cujete, Ceiba pentandra, Lecythis minor, Ochroma pyramidale, Prosopis juliflora, Cavanillesia platanifolia and palms trees of Sabal mauritiiformis, Acrocomia aculeate, Attalea butyracea and several Bactris spp.
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Of these plants, 5 out of 6 species globally threatened are not found in Nanda Devi National Park or elsewhere in Uttaranchal: Aconitum falconeri, A. balfouri, Himalayan maple Acer caesium, the blue Himalayan poppy Mecanopsis aculeate and Saussurea atkinsoni. 31 species are classified as nationally rare.
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The fauna of the Succulent Karoo has a rich complement of endemics, especially among the arachnids, hopliniid beetles, aculeate Hymenoptera, and reptiles.
Succulent Karoo 2008
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The one, of extreme bitterness of words, especially if they be aculeate and proper; for cummunia maledicta are nothing so much; and again, that in anger a man reveal no secrets; for that, makes him not fit for society.
The Essays 2007
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Some polychaetes such as the sea mouse Aphrodite aculeate also bear a ventral muscular, creeping sole; myzostomids have a circular body with fused parapodia, which also forms a ventral foot like structure.
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The various other families of aculeate _Hymenoptera_ are doubtless more abundant than the species recorded indicate, and it may be safely reckoned that the parasitic _Hymenoptera_ in Ceylon far exceed one thousand species in number, though they are yet only known by means of about two dozen kinds collected at Kandy by Mr. Thwaites.
Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon James Emerson Tennent 1836
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The various other families of aculeate _Hymenoptera_ are doubtless more abundant than the species recorded indicate, and it may be safely reckoned that the parasitic _Hymenoptera_ in Ceylon far exceed one thousand species in number, though they are yet only known by means of about two dozen kinds collected at Kandy by Mr. Thwaites.
Ceylon; an Account of the Island Physical, Historical, and Topographical with Notices of Its Natural History, Antiquities and Productions, Volume 1 (of 2) James Emerson Tennent 1836
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His defection aggrieved her so bitterly, that the fiercest of her wrath turned upon him; and after a wrangle wherein all the parties concerned had made liberal use of those "aculeate and proper" words against which the wary Bacon warns his quarrelling readers, she flounced away into the darkness of the small hours of the stormy December morning, loudly avowing her determination never to see a sight of the ugly, dirty, mane-spirited poltroon, or open her lips to him as long as she had an eye or a tongue in her head.
Strangers at Lisconnel Jane Barlow 1887
qms commented on the word aculeate
When hedgehogs have a heavy date
They'll yelp and shrilly ululate.
Their poignant cries
Are no surprise
For passion pains the aculeate.
July 25, 2015