mayfly
Americannoun
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Also called shadfly. any insect of the order Ephemeroptera, having delicate, membranous wings with the front pair much larger than the rear and having an aquatic larval stage and a terrestrial adult stage usually lasting less than two days.
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Angling. Also May fly an artificial fly made to resemble this insect.
noun
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Also called: dayfly. any insect of the order Ephemeroptera (or Ephemerida ). The short-lived adults, found near water, have long tail appendages and large transparent wings; the larvae are aquatic
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angling an artificial fly resembling this
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of mayfly
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.
See Examples For:
Some would sip the mouse like a tiny mayfly; others would leap completely out of the water, grabbing the fly on the way down.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 16, 2021
He believes there is a direct correlation between sewage discharges and lower numbers of brown trout, grayling and invertebrates - animals without a backbone, including worms, snails and insects such as mayfly.
From BBC ● Mar. 31, 2021
The Stroud Water Research Center in Pennsylvania, where Jackson is based, has a long tradition of testing water quality impacts on mayfly larvae.
From Scientific American ● Dec. 6, 2018
Out of Sight, in the meantime, is a mayfly that appears briefly — this year in an old furniture building at 115 S. Jackson St., plus the building next door.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 2, 2017
Here, I am the strange one, with my blunt fingers, round ears, and mayfly life.
From "The Cruel Prince" by Holly Black
The plump mayflies known as green drakes were emerging on the water.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2026
Crucially, the data show that families that are particularly sensitive to river pollution, like mayflies, stoneflies and caddisflies, are recovering most strongly of all.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 4, 2023
The American Southeast has the greatest aquatic biodiversity of anywhere in the temperate world, with an amazing array of fish, mussels, aquatic snails, crawdads and aquatic insects, like mayflies and dragonflies.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 21, 2022
When the sun hit the water and green drake mayflies began dancing on the surface, a fish lower in the pool began feeding on top.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 13, 2022
There would be no large stoneflies, no mayflies, no caddis flies.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
