ENGLISH DICTIONARY

Locust

Definition, Meaning & Examples

Pronunciation /ˈləʊ.kəst/ · Part of speech noun

Quick meaning: Locust is a noun meaning (now historical) A fruit or pod of a carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua).

Meaning

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

More Meanings

  1. Any of various often leguminous trees and shrubs, especially of the genera Robinia and Gleditsia; locust tree.
  2. A cicada.
  3. (Hong Kong, derogatory, offensive, ethnic slur) A mainlander.
  4. (UK, slang, obsolete) A dose of laudanum.
  5. (intransitive) To come in a swarm.
  6. 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).

Example Sentences

This Philip and the black-faced swarms of Spain, The hardest, cruellest people in the world, Come locusting upon us, eat us up, Confiscate lands, goods, money […]
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.

Word Forms

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include cicada, katydid, grasshopper, crayfish, lobster, funds.

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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.