Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Gnat

Gnat (năt), n. [AS. gnæt.] 1. (Zoöl.) A blood-sucking dipterous fly, of the genus Culex, undergoing a metamorphosis in water. The females have a proboscis armed with needlelike organs for penetrating the skin of animals. These are wanting in the males. In America they are generally called mosquitoes. See Mosquito.

2. Any fly resembling a Culex in form or habits; esp., in America, a small biting fly of the genus Simulium and allies, as the buffalo gnat, the black fly, etc.

Gnat catcher (Zoöl.), one of several species of small American singing birds, of the genus Polioptila, allied to the kinglets. — Gnat flower, the bee flower. — Gnat hawk (Zoöl.), the European goatsucker; — called also gnat owl. — Gnat snapper (Zoöl.), a bird that catches gnats. — Gnat strainer, a person ostentatiously punctilious about trifles. Cf. Matt. xxiii. 24.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.