ˈleaf-cutter
1. An insect that cuts or eats out portions of the leaves of trees; spec. in leaf-cutter ant, leaf-cutter bee.
| 1815 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. I. 191 The leaf-cutter bee also (Apis centuncularis) by cutting pieces out..disfigures it [the rose] considerably. 1881 Cassell's Nat. Hist. V. 368 The..Bees of the genus Megachile are commonly known as Leaf-cutters. 1899 Daily News 26 July 8/2 Another community, Leaf-Cutter Ants, of North America. |
b. A bird of similar habits.
| 1884 G. Allen in Longm. Mag. Jan. 291 The South American leaf-cutter has..bony bosses on its beak and palate. |
2. A paper-knife. ‘U.S. rare’ (Cent. Dict.).
So leaf-cutting ppl. a., in leaf-cutting ant, leaf-cutting bee = prec. (sense 1).
| 1802 Bingley Anim. Biog. (1813) III. 272 The Leaf-cutting Bee. 1874 Lubbock Wild Flowers i. 6 A species of acacia..is apt to be stripped of its leaves by a leaf-cutting ant. |