Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various short-horned grasshoppers that sometimes migrate in immense swarms, devouring vegetation and crops.
  • noun A cicada, especially a periodical cicada.
  • noun Any of several trees of the pea family bearing long pods, especially the black locust, honey locust, and carob.
  • noun The wood of any of these trees.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To devour and lay waste like locusts; ravage.
  • noun A well-known tree of the United States, Robinia Pseudacacia, with thorny branches, delicate pinnate leaves, and dense clusters of white heavily scented flowers.
  • noun The carob-tree, Ceratonia Siligua. See Ceratonia and carob.
  • noun The wood of the locust-tree.
  • noun A club or billy used by policemen: so called because commonly made of locust-wood.
  • noun One of the orthopterous saltatorial insects of the family Acridiiæ, popularly known as grasshoppers, and more correctly called short-horned grasshoppers.
  • noun An orthopterous saltatorial insect of the genus Locusta, family Locustidæ.
  • noun A homopterous insect of the genus Cicada, family Cicadidæ, such as the harvest-fly, Cicada tibicon, and the seventeen-year locust, or periodical cicada, Cicada septendecim. See cut under Cicadidæ.
  • noun A cockchafer; a beetle.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) Any one of numerous species of long-winged, migratory, orthopterous insects, of the family Acrididæ, allied to the grasshoppers; esp., (Edipoda migratoria, syn. Pachytylus migratoria, and Acridium perigrinum, of Southern Europe, Asia, and Africa. In the United States the related species with similar habits are usually called grasshoppers. See grasshopper.
  • noun (Zoöl.) a longicorn beetle (Cyllene robiniæ), which, in the larval state, bores holes in the wood of the locust tree. Its color is brownish black, barred with yellow. Called also locust borer.
  • noun (Zoöl.) the rose-colored starling or pastor of India. See Pastor.
  • noun (Zoöl.) an African bird; the beefeater.
  • noun (Bot.) The locust tree. See Locust Tree (definition, note, and phrases).
  • noun (Bot.) a commercial name for the sweet pod of the carob tree.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A type of grasshopper in the family Acrididae that flies in swarms and is very destructive to crops and other vegetation.
  • noun A locust tree.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun migratory grasshoppers of warm regions having short antennae
  • noun hardwood from any of various locust trees
  • noun any of various hardwood trees of the family Leguminosae

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French locuste, from Latin locusta. Sense 3a, probably from the resemblance of a carob pod to a grasshopper and the use of both as subsistence food in drier regions of the Near East.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French langouste, from Latin locusta ("locust, crustacean, lobster").

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Examples

  • The locust is white with warm heart wood, shots of brown and yellow.

    what I did for thanksgiving vacation | clusterflock 2008

  • In modern America, we associate the word locust with a grasshopper-type insect.

    Honey Granola for St. John the Baptist Jessica 2009

  • The locust is always the last to open its leaves; they are just beginning to show, and a number of others, which partake of the same character of foliage, have only preceded them by a week or so.

    Rural Hours 1887

  • Bochart supports Margin, "the multitude of your gardens." palmer worm -- A species of locust is here meant, hurtful to fruits of trees, not to herbage or corn.

    Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible 1871

  • It is a point still unsettled, whether the food of him who was sent to prepare the way consisted of fruit or of insects; the name locust being indiscriminately applied to either, and both being used by the inhabitants of Palestine.

    Palestine or the Holy Land From the Earliest Period to the Present Time Michael Russell 1814

  • Some of the ancients have observed that the head of a locust is very like, in shape, to the head of a horse.

    Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume IV (Isaiah to Malachi) 1721

  • Only a few days ago ralph posted such a cogent opinion of what a liberal believes that I was proud to have the word locust in my name.

    Think Progress 2009

  • Only a few days ago ralph posted such a cogent opinion of what a liberal believes that I was proud to have the word locust in my name.

    Think Progress 2009

  • Only a few days ago ralph posted such a cogent opinion of what a liberal believes that I was proud to have the word locust in my name.

    Think Progress 2009

  • Only a few days ago ralph posted such a cogent opinion of what a liberal believes that I was proud to have the word locust in my name.

    Think Progress 2009

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