daddy-longlegs

Or dad·dy long·legs

[dad-ee-lawng-legz, -long-]

noun

(used with a singular or plural verb)

1. Also called harvestman. any of numerous spiderlike arachnids of the order Opiliones, having a compact rounded body and extremely long, slender legs.

2. British.,  a crane fly.

daddy-longlegs

noun

1. an informal name for a crane fly

2. an informal name for harvestman

Word History and Origins

Origin of daddy-longlegs¹

First recorded in 1805–15; daddy + long ¹ + leg + -s ³

Example Sentences

At night they spent the time rescuing Daddy-longlegs from their candles and rushlights.

Read more on Literature

A warm May was likely to drive an earlier emergence of craneflies, or daddy-longlegs, a key chick food.

Read more on BBC

While Saracens also have some sharp English backs, none are quite like Jonny May, the Cherry and White wing with the hurdler's stride and the elusiveness of a flying daddy-longlegs.

Read more on The Guardian

Jasmine, looking at her, thought that she resembled a daddy-longlegs less nowadays and more one of those wintry flies that survive the first frosts of autumn and spend their time walking up and down window panes in an attempt to suggest that if the window were open they would be out and about, delighting in the brisk wintry weather.

Read more on Project Gutenberg

Miss Crossfield was so thin, her movements and gestures were so indeterminate, and her arms wandered so much upon the air, that indoors she suggested a daddy-longlegs on a window-pane, and out of doors a daddy-longlegs floating across an upland pasture in autumn.

Read more on Project Gutenberg

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