Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of various woodlice, especially of the genera Oniscus and Porcellio, that lack the ability of pillbugs to roll into a ball.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A hog-louse; a pill-bug; a sow; any terrestrial isopod of the family Oniscidæ, as Oniscus asellus. Some sow-bugs can roll themselves up into a ball like a tiny armadillo. See
sow , n., 2, and cut underOniscus .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
woodlouse .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun terrestrial isopod having an oval segmented body (a shape like a sow)
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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It's so large, in comparison to its land-dwelling relative, the familiar and even slightly cute pillbug or sowbug, because of the phenomenon of deep sea gigantism, which also gives rise to the giant squid.
April 2010 2010
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In sections of low-gradient rivers, beds of aquatic vegetation provide habitat for crustaceans, particularly scuds and the aquatic sowbug.
Trout and Salmon of North America Robert J. Behnke 2002
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In sections of low-gradient rivers, beds of aquatic vegetation provide habitat for crustaceans, particularly scuds and the aquatic sowbug.
Trout and Salmon of North America Robert J. Behnke 2002
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In sections of low-gradient rivers, beds of aquatic vegetation provide habitat for crustaceans, particularly scuds and the aquatic sowbug.
Trout and Salmon of North America Robert J. Behnke 2002
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I tip over the stump holding the squirrel feeder and grab a sowbug, crushing it between my fingers.
grouse Diary Entry grouse 2002
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In sections of low-gradient rivers, beds of aquatic vegetation provide habitat for crustaceans, particularly scuds and the aquatic sowbug.
Trout and Salmon of North America Robert J. Behnke 2002
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From before, the ship reminded him of a fat sowbug.
A Fire Upon the Deep Vinge, Vernor 1992
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The writer has a cherry-stone in which is coiled up an insect, best known as the sowbug.
Scientific American Supplement, No. 324, March 18, 1882 Various
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If there is pathos in this, there is bathos in his apostrophe to the millipede, beginning "Poor sowbug!" and eulogizing the healing virtues of that odious little beast; of which he tells us to take "half a pound, putt 'em alive into a quart or two of wine," with saffron and other drugs, and take two ounces twice a day.
Complete Project Gutenberg Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Works Oliver Wendell Holmes 1851
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If there is pathos in this, there is bathos in his apostrophe to the millipede, beginning "Poor sowbug!" and eulogizing the healing virtues of that odious little beast; of which he tells us to take "half a pound, putt 'em alive into a quart or two of wine," with saffron and other drugs, and take two ounces twice a day.
Medical Essays, 1842-1882 Oliver Wendell Holmes 1851
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