roach
part of speech
noun (a roach, roaches; for the fish the plural is often roach)
meaning for a pupil
1) (USA, Canada, informal) A cockroach: a flat brown insect that runs fast and lives in dirty kitchens and warm places. tree →
2) A small silver freshwater fish with reddish eyes and fins, common in rivers, lakes and canals in Britain and Europe. tree →
3) (slang) The end of a cannabis cigarette; drug slang, not a word for school. tree →
sense in the lessons
In North America «roaches» is the everyday word for cockroaches, pests that spread germs, so keeping food covered and kitchens clean is a health lesson. In Britain and Ireland a roach is a fish that anglers catch in rivers and canals, the kind of fish that swims in the river in The Wind in the Willows. Cockroaches are also a science fact: they are very tough insects with six legs.
examples
- (USA) We saw a roach run under the fridge. tree →
- Keep food in boxes so roaches don't get in. tree →
- Grandad caught a roach in the canal. tree →
- The roach has a silver body and red eyes. tree →
- Roach and perch swam in the clear river. tree →
- Cockroaches, or roaches, have six legs like all insects. tree →
- The exterminator came to get rid of the roaches. tree →
- Well, one Sunday morning he was fishing as usual, and not a salmon had risen to him, his basket was bare of roach or dace. tree →
note
Short for cockroach in North America; in the UK say cockroach for the insect. Plural for the insect: roaches; for the fish: roach or roaches. The myth that cockroaches would be the only survivors of anything is exaggerated.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «roach» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.