dragonfly

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Seeing and flying like a dragonfly could be the key to developing highly versatile micro-aerial vehicles.

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Definitions (3)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun Any of various large insects of the order Odonata or suborder Anisoptera, having a long slender body and two pairs of narrow, net-veined wings that are usually held outstretched while the insect is at rest. Also called regionally darner, darning needle, devil's darning needle, ear sewer, mosquito fly, mosquito hawk, needle, skeeter hawk, snake doctor, snake feeder, spindle.
  2. Regional Note
    Regional terms for the dragonfly are numerous—the Dictionary of American Regional English lists nearly 80 of them. The greatest variety of terms is to be found in the South, where the most widespread term is snake doctor (a name based on a folk belief that dragonflies take care of snakes). The Midland equivalent is snake feeder. Speakers from the Lower South and the Mississippi Valley, on the other hand, are more likely to refer to the same insect as a mosquito fly, mosquito hawk, or, in the South Atlantic states, a skeeter hawk. The imagery outside the South often alludes to the insect's shape rather than its behavior or diet: speakers in the West, Upper North, and New England call it a darner, darning needle, or, less commonly, a devil's darning needle, and those in the Upper North also refer to it just as a needle; those in Coastal New Jersey, a spindle; and those in the San Francisco Bay area, an ear sewer, that is, a creature that sews up your ears.

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Examples (42)

  • She reached out to grab it but the dragonfly was gone in a wink, darting deeper into the jungle She turned around. —  JEFF GRUBB
  • The small jet had moved like a dragonfly, and the pilot had obliged when de Gier pointed at one of the hundreds of islands and circled the conglomeration of overgrown rocks dotted with a few white wooden houses, going so low that they could see the foam break on the waves, rolling in to froth over the jagged shore. —  The Maine Massacre - Janwillem van de Wetering - Grijpstra-de Gier 07
  • As for the dragonfly, it is merely an adaptation of a gene-transplanting technique previously accomplished using fruit flies. —  Destroyer 107: Feast or Famine
  • In adulthood, like its fellow dragonflies, the clubtail dragonfly is a valuable predator which eats mosquitoes and other small insects.
  • Seeing and flying like a dragonfly could be the key to developing highly versatile micro-aerial vehicles. —  India eNews
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