earwig

«earwig» in Mova's school dictionary: A small brown insect with a long body and a pair of… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (an earwig, earwigs); verb (UK, informal: earwig, earwigs, earwigged, earwigging)

meaning for a pupil

1) A small brown insect with a long body and a pair of pincers at its tail end. tree →

2) (UK, informal) To listen secretly to other people's conversations, as in «Stop earwigging!» tree →

sense in the lessons

In science and garden lessons earwigs are minibeasts found under stones, bark and flowerpots; they eat plants and small insects. Myth: they do not crawl into people's ears to lay eggs. In UK homes, a nosy child might be told off for «earwigging».

examples

• We found earwigs under the flowerpot. tree →
• An earwig has pincers on its tail. tree →
• Earwigs come out at night to eat. tree →
• Earwigs do not really crawl into your ears. tree →
• Stop earwigging on our conversation! tree →
• Mum said I was earwigging when I listened at the door. tree →
• Effie's brother Harry fished something out of his tea, which he thought at first was an earwig. tree →

note

Takes «an»: «an earwig». The verb sense is British and informal. The pincers are called «cerci»; they can give a pinch but are harmless.

In the corpora

• Free worm!" Lottie's brother whispers at bedtime that earwigs crawl into your ears at night and munch your brain.
• Earwigs don't seek out ears and can't eat brains; their name probably comes from old folk beliefs.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «earwig» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.