crotonbug

or Cro·ton bug

[ kroht-n-buhg ]

Origin of crotonbug

1
1855–60, Americanism; allegedly after the Croton Reservoir in Westchester Co., N.Y.; its opening in 1842 was supposedly coincident with a rise in New York City's cockroach population; see bug1

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How to use crotonbug in a sentence

  • It is a small black-beetle or cockroach, called by scientists "Blatta germanica" and by others the "Croton Bug."

    Enemies of Books | William Blades
  • If you dislike to touch the cockroach so much, perhaps you will look at this picture of a croton bug.

    The Insect Folk | Margaret Warner Morley
  • The Croton bug (Ectobia germanica) as a factor in bacterial dissemination.

  • We call it the croton bug, but it is not a bug at all, it is a cockroach.

    The Insect Folk | Margaret Warner Morley

British Dictionary definitions for Croton bug

Croton bug

noun
  1. US another name for the German cockroach

Origin of Croton bug

1
C19: named after the Croton river, whose water was piped to New York City in 1842

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