ankle biter

noun

variants: or ankle-biter \ ˈaŋ-kəl-ˌbī-tər

How to pronounce ankle-biter (audio)

\

Definition of ankle biter

1 informal : a young child The only topics of conversation among parents are about the ankle biters and their various extracurricular activities … and food allergies.— Deborah Hill Cone

2 informal : a small, aggressive dog

Examples of ankle biter in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Cut these ankle biters some slack and don’t roll your eyes. — Christopher Muther, BostonGlobe.com, "Six ways we can all be more civil and helpful to each other on planes," 26 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'ankle biter.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Keep scrolling for more

Learn More about ankle biter

Dictionary Entries near ankle biter

Statistics for ankle biter

Last Updated

17 Sep 2019

Look-up Popularity

Time Traveler for ankle biter

The first known use of ankle biter was in 1840

See more words from the same year

Comments on ankle biter

What made you want to look up ankle biter? Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible).

WORD OF THE DAY

misprision

concealment of treason or felony

Test Your Vocabulary

The Exceptions Quiz III

Which of these words does not mean "nonsense"?

Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words?

TAKE THE QUIZ

Word Winder's CrossWinder

Test Your Knowledge - and learn some interesting things along the way.

TAKE THE QUIZ