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Definition of "ichneumon" [ich•neu•mon]

  • A large mongoose (Herpestes ichneumon) of Africa and southern Europe, having a gray coat and black tail tufts. Also called Egyptian mongoose. (noun)
  • The ichneumon fly. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "ichneumon" in a sentence
  • "Now, _why_ should not the gray Indian mongoose (formerly called the ichneumon, _ (Herpestes griscus_)) destroy poultry in India, as it does elsewhere?"
  • "And when the hydrus, which is a kind of ichneumon, perceives this, it penetrates into its mouth, which the bird has caused to open, and descends into its stomach, where it devours its entrails, and then comes forth again."
  • "Go back to Aristotle, and we may listen to him again while he talks of many other kindred insects: of the humble-bee and its kind, of the mason-bee with its hard round nest of clay, of the robber-bees, and of the various wasps and hornets; or (still more curiously and unexpectedly) of the hunter-wasp or 'ichneumon', and how it kills the spider, carries it home to its nest, and lays its eggs in its poor body, that the little wasp-grubs may afterwards be fed."