mayfly

[mey-flahy]

noun, plural may·flies.

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.

Also May fly. Angling. an artificial fly made to resemble this insect.

Origin of mayfly

First recorded in 1645–55; May + fly²

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

Examples from the Web for mayfly

Historical Examples of mayfly

For these articles the season is almost as brief as the season of the mayfly or the grannom.
Social Origins and Primal Law
Andrew Lang
First woman aviator to design and build her own machine, The Mayfly.
Jane's All the World's Aircraft
Various
Mayfly, on the other hand, was rather skittish, and began prancing and capering as soon as he got off the road into the field.
Ask Momma
R. S. Surtees
Around it flutter some butterflies; on the right is a lizard, and on the left a Mayfly.
The Standard Galleries - Holland
Esther Singleton
Ephemera, ef-em′er-a, n. the Mayfly, a genus of short-lived insects: that which lasts a short time.
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M)
Various

British Dictionary definitions for mayfly

mayfly

noun plural -flies

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

angling an artificial fly resembling this

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