Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of numerous large biting tabanid flies, the females of which feed on the blood of various mammals.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A hexachætous dipterous insect, as Tabanus bovinus and other species of the family Tabanidæ, of which the females have a piercing proboscis, and are extremely annoying to horses and cattle. Also called breeze, breeze-fly, and gadfly. See cuts under
breeze and gadfly. - noun A pupiparous dipterous insect of the family Hippoboscidæ; a forest-fly or tick-fly. Also called
horse-tick . - noun A dichætous dipterous insect of the family Œstridæ; a true bot-fly, as the horse-bot, Gasterophilus equi. See cut under
bot-fly .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) Any dipterous fly of the family
Tabanidæ , that stings horses, and sucks their blood. - noun (Zoöl.) The horse tick or forest fly (Hippobosca).
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Any of several medium- to large
flies , of thefamily Tabanidae, that suck theblood ofmammals (not to be confused with Stomoxys calcitrans, thestable fly , or dog fly).
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun large swift fly the female of which sucks blood of various animals
- noun large swift fly the female of which sucks blood of various animals
- noun winged fly parasitic on horses
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word horsefly.
Examples
-
The common horsefly, which is so troublesome in the shady lanes of England, belongs to this same genus.
-
The common horsefly, which is so troublesome in the shady lanes of England, belongs to this same genus.
-
The common horsefly, which is so troublesome in the shady lanes of England, belongs to this same genus.
Chapter VIII 1909
-
The common horsefly, which is so troublesome in the shady lanes of England, belongs to this same genus.
The Voyage of the Beagle Charles Darwin 1845
-
For the last few days, the weather had been tolerably cool, and we had not been much troubled with musquitoes; instead, however, we were persecuted severely by a very large greyish kind of horsefly, with a huge proboscis for sucking up the blood.
-
For the last few days, the weather had been tolerably cool, and we had not been much troubled with musquitoes; instead, however, we were persecuted severely by a very large greyish kind of horsefly, with a huge proboscis for sucking up the blood.
-
For the last few days, the weather had been tolerably cool, and we had not been much troubled with musquitoes; instead, however, we were persecuted severely by a very large greyish kind of horsefly, with a huge proboscis for sucking up the blood.
-
The "horsefly" or, in this case, my plastic bag and fishing rod, doesn't live in there.
TheHorse.com News 2009
-
Papa circled the game like a parched horsefly, but his eyes were on Mama.
Amaryllis in Blueberry Christina Meldrum 2011
-
She took a sip of her martini while a horsefly flew out of her armpit.
The Adults Alison Espach 2011
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.