Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of numerous parasitic wasps of the family Ichneumonidae, with larvae that are parasitoids of other insects and females that have long ovipositors.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A carnivorous mammal, a kind of mungoose (Viverra ichneumon of Linnæus, now known as Herpestes ichneumon), found in Egypt, belonging to the subfamily Herpestinæ and family Viverridæ.
  • noun [capitalized] A genus of herpestine viverrine mammals, containing the species I. pharaonis. See Herpestes.
  • noun In entomology:
  • noun [capitalized] A Linnean genus of hymenopterous insects, formerly including most of the pupivorous or parasitic hymenopters, now restricted to certain species of ichneumon-flies which are regarded as typical of the genuine Ichneumonidæ.
  • noun A species of the genus Ichneumon or family Ichneumonidæ; an ichneumon-fly; a cuckoo-fly.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) Any carnivorous mammal of the genus Herpestes, and family Viverridæ. Numerous species are found in Asia and Africa. The Egyptian species (Herpestes ichneumon), which ranges to Spain and Palestine, is noted for destroying the eggs and young of the crocodile as well as various snakes and lizards, and hence was considered sacred by the ancient Egyptians. The common species of India (Herpestes griseus), known as the mongoose, has similar habits and is often domesticated. It is noted for killing the cobra.
  • noun (Zoöl.) Any hymenopterous insect of the family Ichneumonidæ, of which several thousand species are known, belonging to numerous genera.
  • noun See Ichneumon, 2.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The Egyptian mongoose, Herpestes ichneumon, found in Africa and southern Europe.
  • noun The ichneumon wasp.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun northern African mongoose; in ancient times thought to devour crocodile eggs

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin ichneumōn, weasel, ichneumon fly, from Greek ikhneumōn, from ikhneuein, to track, from ikhnos, track.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin ichneumon, from Ancient Greek ἰχνεύμων (ikhneúmōn, "tracker")’, from ἴχνος (íkhnos, "track, footstep").

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Examples

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  • Seen here.

    August 26, 2008

  • From the examples:

    “Go back to Aristotle, and we may listen to him again while he talks of many other kindred insects: of the humble-bee and its kind, of the mason-bee with its hard round nest of clay, of the robber-bees, and of the various wasps and hornets; or (still more curiously and unexpectedly) of the hunter-wasp or 'ichneumon', and how it kills the spider, carries it home to its nest, and lays its eggs in its poor body, that the little wasp-grubs may afterwards be fed.”

    The Legacy of Greece Essays By: Gilbert Murray, W. R. Inge, J. Burnet, Sir T. L. Heath, D'arcy W. Thompson, Charles Singer, R. W. Livingston, A. Toynbee, A. E. Zimmern, Percy Gardner, Sir Reginald Blomfield

    January 22, 2013