Caterpillar
noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 The larva of a butterfly or moth; leafworm.
"The bird just ate that green caterpillar."
- 2 a wormlike and often brightly colored and hairy or spiny larva of a butterfly or moth wordnet
- 3 A vehicle with a caterpillar track; a crawler.
- 4 a large tracked vehicle that is propelled by two endless metal belts; frequently used for moving earth in construction and farm work wordnet
- 5 A set of subtrees of a tree.
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- 6 A rapacious, extortionate person preying upon the community. obsolete
"Bristow Castle, which they say is held By Busbie, Bagot, and their Complices, The Caterpillers of the Commonwealth, Which I haue sworne to weed, and plucke away."
- 1 To move along slowly, drawing one's body up, in the manner of a caterpillar. intransitive
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"This caterpillar will become a beautiful butterfly."
Etymology
From Middle English catirpel, catirpeller, probably from Old Northern French catepeluse (Modern French chatte + pileuse (“hairy cat”)), from Late Latin catta + pilōsa. The sense "rapacious, extortionate person" arose by association with obsolete piller (“plunderer”). See Modern Norman cattepeleuse. Displaced native kaleworm, from Middle English cowle worm, cale worme (“caterpillar, corn weevil”), from Old English cawelwyrm, cawelwurm (“caterpillar”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.