lightning bug

American

noun

firefly.

lightning bug British

noun

another name for the firefly

"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

Etymology

Origin of lightning bug

An Americanism dating back to 1770–80

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.

I half-expect him to leave a trail of argent, fading light in his wake, like a lightning bug.

From The New Yorker • Sep. 15, 2016

We know it as the firefly, or lightning bug, an insect that transforms the sultry summer evening into a veil laced with sequins.

From Washington Post • Jul. 5, 2016

The gadfly wasn’t a gadfly - he was a lightning bug.

From Washington Times • Jan. 22, 2016

Surprisingly, some of the singers also miss the mark, sometimes just by millimeters, but as Mark Twain observed, that's the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.

From Los Angeles Times • May 1, 2015

I wished on a butterfly that landed on me, on a camel-shaped cloud, on a cricket in the house, and a lightning bug glowing on my ring finger.

From "Wish" by Barbara O'Connor

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