firefly

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“
She's like a firefly--always dancing about And so they pretended and played, having a very good time, while Mother Martin watched them and smiled.

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Definitions (5)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. noun Any of various nocturnal beetles of the family Lampyridae, characteristically having luminescent chemicals in the posterior tip of the abdomen that produce a flashing light. Also called lightning bug. See Regional Note at lightning bug.

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Examples (50)

  • Ravagin handed her back her firefly, an oddly intense look on his face. —  Triplet
  • On his left hand his firefly was giving off a gentle glow; on his right, his scorpion glove was mute testimony to the fact that even on the threshold of another world Darcane Forest could be a dangerous place. —  Triplet
  • "A watchblade, prayer stick, firefly, and the sky-plane we arrived on." —  Triplet
  • Now and then the light of some welding apparatus would glow like a firefly, sharply silhouetting its operator in the gray gloom. —  Wonder Stories Quarterly Summer 1932
  • Everything that depended upon the firefly is now in danger, and everything that partially depended upon the firefly is now more vulnerable. —  RealClimate
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/ˈfaɪrflai/
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