Cantharides
Definition, Meaning & Examples
Pronunciation /kænˈθæɹɪdiːz/ · Part of speech noun
Quick meaning: Cantharides is a noun meaning Spanish fly, Lytta vesicatoria (syn. Cantharis vesicatoria).
Meaning
Spanish fly, Lytta vesicatoria (syn. Cantharis vesicatoria).
More Meanings
- Spanish fly; a vesicant extracted from the beetle, popularly held to have aphrodisiac properties.
Example Sentences
Madame de Pompadour used tincture of cantharides to regain the love of Louis XV.
I can make the most subtle sauces yield up their secret—whether it be white arsenic, rosalgar, mercury sublimate, or cantharides.
Speaking her name, it was as if he spake pure cantharides. ‘Quick,’ she panted. ‘There is time before they are all about. Again.’
It’s lucky that Carol had taken the precaution of obtaining some cantharides; without them the evening might have been a dead loss.
Related Words
Related dictionary entries include cantharoid, lasiopterine, leptolycine, dithrycine, tachina, nematoceran.
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Sources & Attribution
FreeDictionaryAPI.com / Wiktionary · Original source · CC BY-SA 4.0
Dictionary data is provided by FreeDictionaryAPI.com and sourced from Wiktionary under its stated license.