Word.ws English Dictionary

ovicide

ovicide noun: any substance designed to kill or destroy eggs or ova, especially those of insects, mites, or other pests or parasites.

Noun (1)

ovicide (countable and uncountable, plural ovicides)

  1. (countable) Any substance designed to kill or destroy eggs or ova, especially those of insects, mites, or other pests or parasites.
  2. (uncountable) The killing or destroying of eggs or ova.
    • Should she [the mother of a granivorous insect larva] attempt to reduce the competition faced by her offspring by some form of ovicide?1985, R. H. Smith, C. M. Lessells, “Oviposition, ovicide and larval competition in granivorous insects”, in R. M. Sibly, R. H. Smith, editors, Behavioural Ecology: Ecological Consequences of Adaptive...
    • Of course, fertilization is one necessary step in the process of development from an unfertilized ovum to a human being. But there are other necessary steps en route to becoming human. Far less confusion occurs if references to killing the ovum use just that language. Killing a fertilized ovum is...1991, John B[oswell] Cobb, Jr., “The Right to Live”, in Matters of Life and Death […], Louisville, Ky.: Westminster/John Knox Press, →ISBN, page 78

Noun (2)

ovicide (uncountable)

  1. (humorous, rare) The killing of sheep.
    • A novel kind of Ovicide.—Last week, in a Gentleman’s park in the Upper Ward of Lanarkshire, a sheep was found greatly mangled, supposed by a dog.1817 October 13, Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle, […], volume XVIII, number 940, Portsmouth, Hampshire: G. H. Mottley and W. Harrison, →OCLC, page [2], column 3
    • Last week an old sheep died upon the commons some miles from town. […] [M]aster Joshua had to walk into Bow street, and pay forty shillings for being found guilty of ovicide.1833 September 14, “From the Nantucket Inquirer. The Newest News.”, in The United States Gazette, volume XXXIII, number 1957, Philadelphia, Pa.: Joseph R[ipley] Chandler, →OCLC, page [2], column 4

Examples of ovicide in a sentence

  • Killing a fertilized ovum is ovicide, not murder!1991, John B[oswell] Cobb, Jr., “The Right to Live”, in Matters of Life and Death […], Louisville, Ky.: Westminster/John Knox Press, →ISBN...
  • Keen-eyed officers detect the mutton-bones which tell of unauthorised ovicide, and “clutches” of geese and chickens vanish as if by magic.1880 November 13, [Bernard Henry Becker], “Disturbed Ireland. The Relief of Captain Boycott”, in The Daily News, number 10,789, London...
  • THE DAWN KILLER - Sheep-worrying saga with a loveable old sheepdog accused of ovicide and threatened with execution.1998, “[The Compleat Children's Film Foundation] Spangles 'n' Stardust”, in TV Cream, archived from the original on 07 Dec 1998:

Forms of ovicide

pluralovicides

Origin of ovicide

From ovi- (“egg; ovum”) + -cide (“killer; killing”).

From ovi- (“sheep”) + -cide (“killing”).

Questions about ovicide

What does ovicide mean?
Ovicide means any substance designed to kill or destroy eggs or ova, especially those of insects, mites, or other pests or parasites.
How do you use ovicide in a sentence?
Killing a fertilized ovum is ovicide, not murder!
What part of speech is ovicide?
Ovicide is a noun.
What is the plural of ovicide?
The plural of ovicide is ovicides.

Words near ovicide in the dictionary

  1. ovicell
  2. ovicellate
  3. ovicells
  4. ovicellular
  5. ovicidal
  6. ovicide
  7. ovicides
  8. ovicular
  9. oviculture
  10. Ovid
  11. ovideposition

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ovicide (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “ovicide.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ovicide. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.