Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A common, widely distributed fly (Musca domestica) that frequents human dwellings, breeds in moist or decaying organic matter, and transmits a wide variety of diseases.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The common fly, Musca domestica. It is a dipterous or two-winged insect, of the family Muscidœ and the order Diptera, of the suborder Brachycera (having short feelers or antennæ), and of the subdivision Dichœtœ (having the sucker or proboscis composed of only two pieces). It is a good representative of the large family Muscidœ, and indeed of the whole order Diptera. It is found in nearly all parts of the world. It lays its eggs in bunches or clusters in almost any kind of decaying animal or vegetable matter, as carrion, manure, and other filth, and the maggots hatch in a day or less, according to the degree of heat (of decomposition to which they are subjected. The larvæ are small, headless, legless maggots, which attain their full size in about two weeks, and then crawl into some dry place to pupate. This process occupies a week or two, and on its completion the perfect fly emerges from the pupa. The house-fly is furnished with a suctorial proboscis, from which, when feeding on any dry substance, it exudes a liquid; this, by moistening the food, fits it to be sucked. Its feet are beset with hairs, each terminating in a disk which is supposed to act as a sucker, enabling it to walk on smooth surfaces, even with its back down, as on a ceiling. These disks are supposed to exude a liquid, making the adhesion more perfect. See also cut of compound eye, under eye.
Wiktionary
- n. The common fly, of the species Musca domestica that occurs in most homes; it can spread some diseases.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zoöl.) a common fly (esp. Musca domestica), which infests houses both in Europe and America. Its larva is a maggot which lives in decaying substances or excrement, about sink drains, etc.
- n. common fly (Musca domestica) that frequents human habitations and spreads many diseases.
WordNet 3.0
- n. common fly that frequents human habitations and spreads many diseases
- n. common fly that frequents human habitations and spreads many diseases
Etymologies
- From house + fly. Cognate with Dutch huisvlieg ("housefly"), Danish husflue ("housefly"), Swedish husfluga ("housefly"). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“This preserved housefly is sporting a pair of two-millimeter-wide eyeglasses, engineered with ultra-precise fast-pulse laser technology.”
“Generally speaking the housefly is very susceptible to DDT; unfortunately some fairly resistant species of fly have lately been observed.”
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1948 - Presentation Speech
“One memory that returned with the persistence of a housefly was my recollection of the promise I had made to Grandmere Catherine should anything bad happen to her.”
“The housefly is the Ferrari of the insect world and can change course in as little as 30 thousandths of a second.”
“Creepy animals are only too plentiful, the most objectionable at present is the common housefly which is a perfect plague.”
“Well the North Koreans got two out of three correct, but they forgot to add that she is a windbag who is about as threatening as a housefly.”
“We have people living in cardboard boxes and starving to death and little kids crying out for homes and families and these people are worried about a housefly!!!!”
I saw that the President got his first "kill" yesterday. The PETA-philes have their undies in a wad.
“Two insects, a moth and a housefly, escaped from his mouth and flew up to the chandelier, hovering near the light, wings flapping.”
“Any human—unless willfully ignorant or just stubborn for stubbornness, like a mule or a ball of unraveled cotton twine in a kitchen junk drawer its looping patterns often resembling the meanderings of a housefly stimulated by a drop of sugar water—can perfectly understand Velveeta.”
“His "To Know a Fly" (not an easy task — there are more than 50,000 species) is an exuberant investigation of such matters as taste, hunger and satiation and their role in the survival of the humble housefly.”
The Wall Street Journal: The Fittest Books On Animal Survival
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘housefly’.
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Things with wings
For fanciful birds, see reesetee's •Open List: Flights of Fancy.
For chickens, see Chickens.
For birds endemic to the United States and/or North America, see reesetee's Mo...airplane, dragonfly, pegasus, butterfly, Buffalo, robot bomb, periodical cicada, caduceus, angel, those flying monk..., cherub, housefly and 52 more...
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House, Sweet House
"House" words and phrases, literal and figurative. If another word comes before "house" in the phrase, it's listed on its own; if the phrase starts with "house," I've listed the part that comes aft...
publishing, brokerage, bridge, deck, smoke, road, vaudeville, whore, of representatives, of ill repute, of worship, movie and 174 more...
Tweets
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