locust

[loh-kuh st]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR locust ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

Also called acridid, short-horned grasshopper. any of several grasshoppers of the family Acrididae, having short antennae and commonly migrating in swarms that strip the vegetation from large areas.

any of various cicadas, as the seventeen-year locust.

any of several North American trees belonging to the genus Robinia, of the legume family, especially R. pseudoacacia, having pinnate leaves and clusters of fragrant white flowers.

the durable wood of this tree.

any of various other trees, as the carob and the honey locust.

Origin of locust

1150–1200; Middle English < Latin locusta grasshopper

Related formslo·cust·like, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for locust

grasshopper, cicada

Examples from the Web for locust

Contemporary Examples of locust

This spring, Israel found itself in the midst of a locust invasion.
Cicadas, Grasshoppers, Locusts, Ants Among the Tastiest Insects
Nina Strochlic
May 14, 2013

Historical Examples of locust

She did not go back to Locust the next day, nor for weeks after that.
The Little Colonel
Annie Fellows Johnston
Clark joined in the argument from the blackness under the locust tree.
Good Indian
B. M. Bower
Wiggle appeared to claim the locust as a souvenir of the scout's magic.
Pee-wee Harris
Percy Keese Fitzhugh
This plant is very common on the locust trees about Chillicothe.
The Mushroom, Edible and Otherwise
M. E. Hard
The creature most commonly called a locust is a cicada, or harvest fly.
The Meaning of Evolution
Samuel Christian Schmucker

British Dictionary definitions for locust

locust

noun

any of numerous orthopterous insects of the genera Locusta, Melanoplus, etc, such as L. migratoria, of warm and tropical regions of the Old World, which travel in vast swarms, stripping large areas of vegetationSee also grasshopper (def. 1) Compare seventeen-year locust

Also called: locust tree, false acacia a North American leguminous tree, Robinia pseudoacacia, having prickly branches, hanging clusters of white fragrant flowers, and reddish-brown seed pods

the yellowish durable wood of this tree

any of several similar trees, such as the honey locust and carob

Derived Formslocust-like, adjective

Word Origin for locust

C13 (the insect): from Latin locusta locust; applied to the tree (C17) because the pods resemble locusts

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

Word Origin and History for locust

n.1

"grasshopper," early 14c., borrowed earlier in Old French form languste (c.1200), from Latin locusta "locust, lobster" (see lobster).

In the Hebrew Bible there are nine different names for the insect or for particular species or varieties; in the English Bible they are rendered sometimes 'locust,' sometimes 'beetle,' 'grasshopper,' 'caterpillar,' 'palmerworm,' etc. The precise application of several names is unknown. [OED]

n.2

North American tree, 1630s, originally "carob tree" (1610s), whose fruit supposedly resembled the insect (see locust (n.1)). Greek akris "locust" often was applied in the Levant to carob pods. Soon applied in English to other trees as well.