"white-ant" meaning in English

See white-ant in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: en-au-white-ant.ogg [Australia] Forms: white-ants [present, singular, third-person], white-anting [participle, present], white-anted [participle, past], white-anted [past]
Etymology: From white ant (“termite”), suggesting the action of termites eating the inside of wooden building foundations, often leaving no outward evidence until the structure begins to crumble. Etymology templates: {{m|en|white ant||termite}} white ant (“termite”) Head templates: {{en-verb}} white-ant (third-person singular simple present white-ants, present participle white-anting, simple past and past participle white-anted)
  1. (Australia, colloquial) To bring down from within; to undermine. Tags: Australia, colloquial
    Sense id: en-white-ant-en-verb-31bPmxV4 Categories (other): Australian English, English entries with incorrect language header

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for white-ant meaning in English (3.1kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "white ant",
        "3": "",
        "4": "termite"
      },
      "expansion": "white ant (“termite”)",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From white ant (“termite”), suggesting the action of termites eating the inside of wooden building foundations, often leaving no outward evidence until the structure begins to crumble.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "white-ants",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "white-anting",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "white-anted",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "white-anted",
      "tags": [
        "past"
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    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "white-ant (third-person singular simple present white-ants, present participle white-anting, simple past and past participle white-anted)",
      "name": "en-verb"
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Australian English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The white-anting of ATSIC has been brought about by the usual suspects."
        },
        {
          "text": "If someone undermines you at work you might say they were \"white-anting\" you."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002, Alan Barcan, Radical Students: The Old Left at Sydney University, page 324",
          "text": "The left was divided between the ALP Club, slowly being white-anted by supporters of the DLP, and a Labour or Socialist Club which disgraced the labour movement by its extremism.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2005, Clinton Walker, Golden Miles: Sex, Speed and the Australian Muscle Car, page 149",
          "text": "Plans for the Force 7 had officially been announced earlier in ′74, off the back of the P76′s Car of the Year award, before the shortages and poor quality control started white-anting it.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, Peter Van Onselen, Wayne Errington, John Winston Howard: The Definitive Biography, page 102",
          "text": "He was always prepared to contest an open ballot, when he viewed runs on the leadership as a free-for-all, but never challenged an incumbent leader. In time, Peacock supporters would accuse Howard of white-anting Peacock′s leadership.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011, Mark McKenna, An Eye for Eternity: The Life of Manning Clark, page 263",
          "text": "In May 1947, Clark ‘debated’ Edmunds on ABC Radio, the topic: ‘Is communism white-anting our education system?’—a clear invitation for violent disagreement.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To bring down from within; to undermine."
      ],
      "id": "en-white-ant-en-verb-31bPmxV4",
      "links": [
        [
          "undermine",
          "undermine"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Australia, colloquial) To bring down from within; to undermine."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Australia",
        "colloquial"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-white-ant.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/67/En-au-white-ant.ogg/En-au-white-ant.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/En-au-white-ant.ogg",
      "tags": [
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      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
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  "word": "white-ant"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
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      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "white ant",
        "3": "",
        "4": "termite"
      },
      "expansion": "white ant (“termite”)",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From white ant (“termite”), suggesting the action of termites eating the inside of wooden building foundations, often leaving no outward evidence until the structure begins to crumble.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "white-ants",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "white-anting",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "white-anted",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "white-anted",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "white-ant (third-person singular simple present white-ants, present participle white-anting, simple past and past participle white-anted)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "Australian English",
        "English colloquialisms",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The white-anting of ATSIC has been brought about by the usual suspects."
        },
        {
          "text": "If someone undermines you at work you might say they were \"white-anting\" you."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002, Alan Barcan, Radical Students: The Old Left at Sydney University, page 324",
          "text": "The left was divided between the ALP Club, slowly being white-anted by supporters of the DLP, and a Labour or Socialist Club which disgraced the labour movement by its extremism.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2005, Clinton Walker, Golden Miles: Sex, Speed and the Australian Muscle Car, page 149",
          "text": "Plans for the Force 7 had officially been announced earlier in ′74, off the back of the P76′s Car of the Year award, before the shortages and poor quality control started white-anting it.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008, Peter Van Onselen, Wayne Errington, John Winston Howard: The Definitive Biography, page 102",
          "text": "He was always prepared to contest an open ballot, when he viewed runs on the leadership as a free-for-all, but never challenged an incumbent leader. In time, Peacock supporters would accuse Howard of white-anting Peacock′s leadership.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011, Mark McKenna, An Eye for Eternity: The Life of Manning Clark, page 263",
          "text": "In May 1947, Clark ‘debated’ Edmunds on ABC Radio, the topic: ‘Is communism white-anting our education system?’—a clear invitation for violent disagreement.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To bring down from within; to undermine."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "undermine",
          "undermine"
        ]
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Australia, colloquial) To bring down from within; to undermine."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Australia",
        "colloquial"
      ]
    }
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  "sounds": [
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      "audio": "en-au-white-ant.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/67/En-au-white-ant.ogg/En-au-white-ant.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/En-au-white-ant.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "white-ant"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-22 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (fc4f0c7 and c937495). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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