cantharides

American  

[kan-thar-i-deez] / kænˈθær ɪˌdiz /

plural noun

• cantharis
  singular

1. Spanish fly.

2. cantharis. Spanish fly.

---

cantharides British  

/ kænˈθærɪˌdiːz /

plural noun

1. Also called: Spanish fly.  a diuretic and urogenital stimulant or irritant prepared from the dried bodies of Spanish fly (family Meloidae, not Cantharidae ), once thought to be an aphrodisiac

---

Etymology

Origin of cantharides

1350–1400; Middle English < Latin, plural of cantharis < Greek kantharís blister fly

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cantharides cantharis

Experiments are wanting to introduce some acrid application into practice instead of cantharides, which might not induce the strangury.

From Zoonomia, Vol. II Or, the Laws of Organic Life by Erasmus Darwin

M. M. Fomentation clyster with oil and laudanum, push the stone back with a bougie; if from cantharides give half a pint of warm water every ten minutes.

From Zoonomia, Vol. II Or, the Laws of Organic Life by Erasmus Darwin

Powdered capsicums and cantharides have also seemed to touch the disease; but no one medicine has to me appeared to have any specific influence over it.

From The Dog by Dinks

Their smart upon the mind is like cantharides on the skin but often requires something more than a cabbage leaf and cerate to heal it.

From Sages and Heroes of the American Revolution by L. Carroll Judson

Most practitioners apply counterirritants, such as mustard plasters, turpentine, and ammonia liniment, or cantharides.

From Special Report on Diseases of Cattle by United States. Bureau of Animal Industry

The cantharis is largely reared in Spain, but also in other countries in southern and central Europe.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 8 "Ethiopia" to "Evangelical Association" by Various

But Numenius, in his Art of Fishing, enumerates plainly enough some sort of ὕαινα or plaice, when he says— The cantharis, hyæna, and the mullet.

From The Deipnosophists, or Banquet of the Learned of Athen?us by Athen?us

Under this heading may also be mentioned the domesticated insects, the silkworm, the bee and the cantharis.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 8 "Ethiopia" to "Evangelical Association" by Various