locust

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Now, there is a kind of locust which is seventeen years in changing from the egg to the full insect It is this kind which is so numerous every seventeen years.

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Definitions (49)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (5)

  1. noun Any of numerous grasshoppers of the family Acrididae, often migrating in immense swarms that devour vegetation and crops.
  2. noun The seventeen-year locust.
  3. noun Any of several North American deciduous trees of the genus Robinia, especially R. pseudoacacia, having compound leaves, drooping clusters of fragrant white flowers, and durable hard wood.

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Examples (50)

  • Now there is a tree in the country where St. John retired, which is called the locust-tree, and produces a large sweet bean, shaped like the common French bean, but nearly a foot long, which is very palatable and nutritious. —  The Mission; or Scenes in Africa
  • The honey locust is also a legume and produces nitrogen which, in turn, is used by the pasture grasses and makes more pasture for the cattle The mulberry tree that ripens when cherries are ripe has a value in the fact that every mulberry eaten by a bird saves a cherry and the birds are valuable because they destroy insects that cause the worms in cherries After observing trees for years, I am convinced that there are certain strains or families of trees in the forest that have outstanding traits. —  Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 43rd Annual Meeting Rockport, Indiana, August 25, 26 and 27, 1952
  • I distinguish in these thickets the honey-locust, with its long purple legumes, the "algarobo" (carob-tree), and the thorny "mezquite"; and, rising over all the rest, I descry the tall, slender stem of the Fouquiera splendens_, with panicles of cube-shaped crimson flowers There is less of animal life here; but even these wild ridges have their denizens. —  The Rifle Rangers
  • A newsboy clicking out of space like a locust, shouted "Extra!" —  The Seventh Noon
  • There is a North American locust which is quite famous as a musician. —  Chatterbox, 1905.
 

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Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old French locuste, from Latin locusta. Sense 3a, probably from the resemblance of its fruit to a locust.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English locuste = French locuste = Portuguese Italian locusta = Anglo-Saxon lopust, from Latin locusta, a locust, a shell-fish. Cf. lobster, ult. from the same source.
  2. from locust, n.
 

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/ˈloʊkəst/
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