LOCUST

locust

(noun) migratory grasshoppers of warm regions having short antennae

locust

(noun) hardwood from any of various locust trees

Source: WordNet® 3.1

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Etymology

Noun

locust (plural locusts)

Any of the grasshoppers, often polyphenic and usually swarming, in the family Acrididae that are very destructive to crops and other vegetation, (especially) the migratory locust (Locusta migratoria). [from 14th c.]

(now, historical) A fruit or pod of the carob tree. [from 16th c.]

Any of various often leguminous trees and shrubs, especially of the genera Robinia and Gleditsia; the locust tree. [from 17th c.]

A cicada. [from 18th c.]

(Hong Kong, derogatory, offensive) A Mainlander.

Usage notes

• sometimes confused with locus

Hyponyms

American locust (Schistocerca americana)

Australian plague locust (Chortoicetes terminifera)

Bombay locust (Nomadacris succincta)

brown locust (Locustana pardalina)

desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria)

Italian locust (Calliptamus italicus)

migratory locust (Locusta migratoria)

Moroccan locust (Dociostaurus maroccanus)

red locust (Nomadacris septemfasciata)

Rocky Mountain locust (Melanoplus spretus) (extinct)

spur-throated locust (Austracris guttulosa), of Australia

tree locust (Anacridium spp.)

Anacridium aegyptium (Egyptian locust).

Anacridium melanorhodon, of Africa.

Anacridium wernerellum, of Africa.

Verb

locust (third-person singular simple present locusts, present participle locusting, simple past and past participle locusted)

(intransitive) To come in a swarm.

Anagrams

• clouts

Source: Wiktionary

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Lo"cust, n. Etym: [L. locusta locust, grasshopper. Cf. Lobster.]

1. (Zoöl.)

Definition: Any one of numerous species of long-winged, migratory, orthopterous insects, of the family Acrididæ, allied to the grasshoppers; esp., (Edipoda, or 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.

Note: These insects are at times so numerous in Africa and the south of Asia as to devour every green thing; and when they migrate, they fly in an immense cloud. In the United States the harvest flies are improperly called locusts. See Cicada. Locust beetle (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.

– Locust bird (Zoöl.) the rose-colored starling or pastor of India. See Pastor.

– Locust hunter (Zoöl.), an African bird; the beefeater.

2. Etym: [Etymol. uncertain.] (Bot.)

Definition: The locust tree. See Locust Tree (definition, note, and phrases). Locust bean (Bot.), a commercial name for the sweet pod of the carob tree.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition

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