mosquito

nounverbattested in dialogue

United Kingdom//mɒˈskiː.təʊ//
United States//məsˈki.toʊ//
Canada//məˈskiːto//
//məsˈkitə//

A small flying insect of the family Culicidae, the females of which bite humans and animals and suck blood, leaving an itching bump on the skin, and sometimes carrying diseases like malaria, dengue and yellow fever.

noun

1
A small flying insect of the family Culicidae, the females of which bite humans and animals and suck blood, leaving an itching bump on the skin, and sometimes carrying diseases like malaria, dengue and yellow fever.
I do not quite know what it was that made me poke my head out of the friendly shelter of the blanket, perhaps because I found that the mosquitoes were biting right through it.
We lit a driftwood fire to help keep the mosquitoes away. It was partially successful.
Nicaragua has been investigating the possibility that the 1985 outbreak of dengue fever along its Honduran border may have resulted from the release of infected mosquitos by U.S. reconnaissance overflights.
Sue had climbed up to the rafters and attached her mosquito netting over one of the exposed beams in the ceiling, and Edgar had climbed into the bed under it so no flying buzzies would mess with his ears.

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish mosquito (“gnat”), diminutive of mosca (“fly”), from Latin musca (“fly”), from Proto-Indo-European *mūs- (“fly, stinging fly, gnat”). Cognate with West Flemish meuzie (“mosquito”), dialectal Swedish mausa (“fly”), Lithuanian musė (“a fly”) and Sicilian muschitta (“midge”). See also midge. First attested in the 1580s.

verb

1
To fly close to the ground, seemingly without a course.

Forms

plural: mosquitoes, mosquitos
past tense: mosquitoed
past participle: mosquitoed
present participle: mosquitoing
third person singular: mosquitos

Moscow · A federal city, the capital and largest city of Russia.Moses · The pharaonic patriarch who led the enslaved Hebrews out of…mosque · A place of worship for Muslims, often having at least one…

mosquito · A small flying insect of the family Culicidae, the females of which bite humans and animals and suck blood, leaving an itching bump on the skin, and…

Mosquito · A settlement in Newfoundland and Labrador.moss · Any of various small, green, seedless plants growing on the…Moss · A surname.

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