ˈant-hill
1. The mound or hillock raised over an ant's nest.
| 1297 R. Glouc. 296 As þycke as ameten crepeþ in an amete hulle. 1527 L. Andrew Brunswyke's Distyll. Waters B iij, Burye it in a pyssemer hyll that some call an antehyl. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v. Ant, Ant-hills are little hillocks of earth, which the Ants throw up. 1813 Shelley Q. Mab ii. 101 The thronging thousands to a passing view, Seemed like an anthill's citizens. |
2. The sugar-loaf-shaped nests of the Termites.
| 1859 R. Burton in Jrnl. G. S. XXIX. 177 The country is dotted with anthills, which, when old, become as hard as sandstone: they are generally built by the termite under some shady tree. 1860 Hunt. Grounds O. World I. xi. 172 [Ant-bears] at work scraping up the earth of the ant-hill. |
3. fig.
| 1748 Thomson Cast. Indol. i. 49 All things that do pass, Upon this ant-hill earth. 1856 Kane Arct. Exp. II. xi. 103 They [Esquimaux] soon crowded back into their ant-hill. |