Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- An order of metabolous hexapod insects.
- [l. c] Plural of
dipteron .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun plural (Zoöl.) An extensive order of insects having only two functional wings and two balancers, as the house fly, mosquito, etc. They have a suctorial proboscis, often including two pairs of sharp organs (mandibles and maxillæ) with which they pierce the skin of animals. They undergo a complete metamorphosis, their larvæ (called maggots) being usually without feet.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a large order of insects having a single pair of wings and sucking or piercing mouths; includes true flies and mosquitoes and gnats and crane flies
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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You think politics are about being a diptera, buzzing around bothering people by regurgitating what some country club republican addict has people write for him?
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I theorize that it may involve being bitten by a rare insect, diptera novelis, but have no proof at this time to substantiate my findings.
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The mosquitoes of Loreto have a deserved reputation for driving away such visitors as do not care to leave much of their blood with the redoubtable diptera.
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The coleoptera are, without exception, devoid of stings; the diptera have the sting in front, as the fly, the horsefly, the gadfly, and the gnat.
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On this later-day Earth, drowsing through the late afternoon of its existence, only a few families of the old orders of hymenoptera and diptera survived in mutated form: most dreadful of these were the tigerflies.
HOTHOUSE Aldiss, Brian 1962
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Termites, crickets, red-bugs, stink-bugs, horseflies, mosquitoes, beetles and diptera of all shapes and sizes arise in millions as if spontaneously generated.
A Bird Calendar for Northern India Douglas Dewar 1916
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Coleoptera, hymenoptera, diptera, in fact, all insects exhibit the characteristic effects of alcohol when under its influence.
The Dawn of Reason or, Mental Traits in the Lower Animals James Weir 1881
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The land evertebrates were so sparingly represented, that only three diptera, one species of hymenoptera, and some insect larvæ and spiders could be collected.
The Voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe, Volume I and Volume II Alexander Leslie 1866
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The mosquitoes of Loreto have a deserved reputation for driving away such visitors as do not care to leave much of their blood with the redoubtable diptera.
Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon Jules Verne 1866
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I never observed the yak to be annoyed by any insects; indeed at the elevation it inhabits, there are no large diptera, bots, or gadflies to infest it.
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