locust

CEFRC1

/ˈləʊ.kəst/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A large grasshopper that can travel in huge swarms and damage crops.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A fruit or pod of a carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua).

Examples

  • That's not a grasshopper. It's a locust!

  • The Spanish word "langosta" can mean either "lobster" or "locust".

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
3

Also pronounced

  • /ˈloʊ.kəst/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. Any of various often leguminous trees and shrubs, especially of the genera Robinia and Gleditsia; locust tree.

  2. Any of the grasshoppers, often polyphenic and usually swarming, in the family Acrididae that are very destructive to crops and other vegetation, especially migratory locusts (Locusta migratoria).

  3. A cicada.

More examples

In context

  • The locust made a big jump.

  • Among other articles, they brought with them a great quantity of locusts, which are a kind of pulse, sweet and pleasant to the palate, and in shape resembling French beans, but longer.

  • I took my flogging like a stone. If I had sung, some of the convicts would have given me some lush with a locust in it (laudanum hocussing), and when I was asleep would have given me a crack on the head that would have laid me straight.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

A swarm of blank destroyed all the crops in the field within hours.

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Nearby

Origin

noun

English locust Inherited from Middle English locuste, locust, from Anglo-Norman locuste, Middle French locuste, and their source, Latin locustam (“locust, crustacean, lobster”, accusative of locusta). Doublet of langouste. Noun sense 3 (“kind of tree”), originally referring to the carob (compare locust bean), is based on the resemblance of the trees' beanlike seed pods to the insect and is likely a semantic loan from Ancient Greek ἀκρίς (akrís). Noun sense 5 (“mainlander”) is a semantic loan from Cantonese 蝗蟲 /蝗虫 (wong4 cung4), also meaning "locust".