Spanish fly

American  

noun

1. Also called cantharides.  a preparation of powdered blister beetles, especially the Spanish fly, used medicinally as a counterirritant, diuretic, and aphrodisiac.

2. Also called cantharis.  Also Spanishfly a common European blister beetle, Cantharis (Lytta ) vesicatoria, that yields this preparation.

---

Spanish fly British  

noun

1. a European blister beetle, Lytta vesicatoria (family Meloidae ), the dried bodies of which yield the pharmaceutical product cantharides

2. another name for cantharides

---

Etymology

Origin of Spanish fly

First recorded in 1400–50; so called from the fact that the beetles are found in abundance in Spain

Example Sentences

I can remember how he laboriously explained to his examiner that the Spanish fly grew in Spain.

From The Man from Archangel and Other Tales of Adventure by Doyle, A. Conan

It quickly induces a sharp burning pain, and it excites a destructive outward inflammation which enters much more into the true skin than that which is caused by an old fashioned blister of Spanish fly.

From Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure by Fernie, William Thomas

The Spanish fly is also occasionally found in the south of England.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 2 "Camorra" to "Cape Colony" by Various

It was thought that the poison of the Spanish fly existed in the body, while the head and wings contained the antidote.

From Three Thousand Years of Mental Healing by Cutten, George Barton

The web of these tarantulas each day Increases, till you shall make common cause: None, save the Spanish fly and Attic bee, As yet are strongly stinging to be free.

From Don Juan by Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron