— insectival /in'sek tuy"veuhl/ , adj.
/in"sekt/ , n.
1. any animal of the class Insecta, comprising small, air-breathing arthropods having the body divided into three parts (head, thorax, and abdomen), and having three pairs of legs and usually two pairs of wings.
2. any small arthropod, such as a spider, tick, or centipede, having a superficial, general similarity to the insects. Cf. arachnid .
3. a contemptible or unimportant person.
adj.
4. of, pertaining to, like, or used for or against insects: an insect bite; insect powder.
[ 1595-1605; insectum, n. use of neut. of insectus ptp. of insecare to incise, cut (cf. SEGMENT); trans. of Gk éntomon insect, lit., notched or incised one; see ENTOMO- ]