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 for their habitation and the breeding of their young.
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. R. G. S., XXIX. 177. The country is dotted with ant-hills, which, when old, become as hard as sandstone: they are generally built by the termite under some shady tree.
1860. Hunt. Grounds Old World, I. xi. 172. [Ant-bears] hard 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. Expl., II. xi. 103. They [Esquimaux] soon crowded back into their ant-hill.
