horsefly

British

/ ˈhɔːsˌflaɪ /

noun

Also called: gadfly. cleg. any large stout-bodied dipterous fly of the family Tabanidae, the females of which suck the blood of mammals, esp horses, cattle, and man

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Horsefly: These flies are attracted to polarized light, or rays of light that vibrate in the same direction.

From Scientific American • May 19, 2021

The Mesas North of town, check out the Wilson, Hastings and Horsefly mesas, where lots of 35 acres start at $300,000, or, with a home, at $600,000.

From Time Magazine Archive

Wild Indigo; Yellow or Indigo Broom; Horsefly Weed Baptisia tinctoria Flowers—Bright yellow, papilionaceous, about 1/2 in. long, on short pedicels, in numerous but few flowered terminal racemes.

From Wild Flowers Worth Knowing by Blanchan, Neltje

Some parties did, but not her; and she having to be up and on the way to Horsefly Mountain by six-thirty in the A.M.!

From Ma Pettengill by Wilson, Harry Leon

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023