Definitions

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

  • Same as Mediterranean fruit fly; -- a shortened form.

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

  • noun A small fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata, native to the Mediterranean.

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

  • noun small black-and-white fly that damages citrus and other fruits by implanting eggs that hatch inside the fruit

Etymologies

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Examples

  • I would show up unannounced, watch Jaime teach calculus, chat with Principal Henry Gradillas, check in with other Advanced Placement classes and in the early afternoon call my editor in Washington to say I was chasing down the latest medfly outbreak story, or whatever seemed believable at the time.

    Unlike many, Escalante believed in teaching, not sorting 2010

  • A medfly plague would be even worse: if Mediterranean fruit flies were to take hold in California and continental America, it is estimated that they would cause 1.5 billion dollars in damages annually.

    The Fruit Hunters Adam Leith Gollner 2008

  • In 1982 he Is blamed for not spraying farms threatened by the medfly.

    A Blood Sport 2008

  • A medfly plague would be even worse: if Mediterranean fruit flies were to take hold in California and continental America, it is estimated that they would cause 1.5 billion dollars in damages annually.

    The Fruit Hunters Adam Leith Gollner 2008

  • A medfly plague would be even worse: if Mediterranean fruit flies were to take hold in California and continental America, it is estimated that they would cause 1.5 billion dollars in damages annually.

    The Fruit Hunters Adam Leith Gollner 2008

  • Yet contrary to Carson's expectation, wide-area spraying of insecticides has become so rare that the two times this has happened in the past decade, during California's medfly episodes, it has been headline news.

    Averting A Death Foretold 2008

  • Ely followed his eyes down and saw the medfly floating on the surface of the hot liquid.

    The Black Ice Connelly, Michael, 1956- 1993

  • Bosch rolled down the window, badged him and asked who the head medfly eradicator was.

    The Black Ice Connelly, Michael, 1956- 1993

  • If the medfly comes to southern California, who are we to try to eradicate it?

    The Black Ice Connelly, Michael, 1956- 1993

  • That was how he had swallowed the medfly which had brought Bosch here.

    The Black Ice Connelly, Michael, 1956- 1993

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