INSECT POWDER • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Insect powder

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/ˈɪnsˌɛkt pˈaʊdər/ Listen

noun

Insect n.

(Zool.) One of the Insecta; esp., one of the Hexapoda. See Insecta. Note: The hexapod insects pass through three stages during their growth, viz., the larva, pupa, and imago or adult, but in some of the orders the larva differs little from the imago, except in lacking wings, and the active pupa is very much like the larva, except in having rudiments of wings. In the higher orders, the larva is usually a grub, maggot, or caterpillar, totally unlike the adult, while the pupa is very different from both larva and imago and is inactive, taking no food.

(Zool.) Any air-breathing arthropod, as a spider or scorpion.

(Zool.) Any small crustacean. In a wider sense, the word is often loosely applied to various small invertebrates.

Fig.: Any small, trivial, or contemptible person or thing.

Insect powder,a powder used for the extermination of insects; esp., the powdered flowers of certain species of Pyrethrum, a genus now merged in Chrysanthemum. Called also Persian powder.

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Etymology of 'Insect powder'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Insect powder" Quotes from Famous Books

... into my knapsack. I find some lamb stew and tapioca pudding capsules and split them with Zahooli and Wurpz. Then I come up with a little box and glance at the label. It says, URGOXA'S INSECT POWDER—Contains Radiatol. ...

— Operation Earthworm • Joe Archibald

... ATOMIZING CAN.—F.L. Palmer, Sr., New York city.—This invention relates to improvements in cans for packing insect powder and other like finely powdered substances which, in use, require to be delivered in atomic jets for penetrating crevices where insects secrete themselves, and it consists in providing such cans with stoppers having nozzles, through which stoppers or nozzles the passages are temporarily ...

— Scientific American, Vol.22, No. 1, January 1, 1870 • Various

... invariably walked the shadow of Groholsky. . . . I call them shadows because they had both lost their natural appearance. They had grown thin and pale and shrunken, and looked more like shadows than living people. . . . Both were pining away like fleas in the classic anecdote of the Jew who sold insect powder. ...

— Love and Other Stories • Anton Chekhov

... Transcaucasia, who is the highest living authority on everything pertaining to the natural history of that region, wrote us recently as follows: "The only species of its genus Pyrethrum roseum, which gives a good, effective insect powder, is nowhere cultivated, but grows wild in the basal-alpine zone of our mountains at an altitude of from 6,000 to 8,000 feet." From this it appears that this species, at least, is not cultivated in its native home, and Dr. Radde's statement ...

— Scientific American Suppl. No. 299 • Various

... colonel he said at once: "Who? Me? The colonel! Say, you'd better get this and get it right: I'm nothing here. I'm less than nothing. Why, the colonel could walk right over me on the parade ground and never even know he'd stepped on anything. If I was a louse and he was a can of insect powder——" ...

— More Tish • Mary Roberts Rinehart