Spanish fly

American  

noun

1. Also called cantharides.  a preparation of powdered blister beetles, especially the Spanish fly, used medicinally as a counterirritant, diuretic, and aphrodisiac.

2. Also called cantharis.  Also Spanishfly a common European blister beetle, Cantharis (Lytta ) vesicatoria, that yields this preparation.

---

Spanish fly British  

noun

1. a European blister beetle, Lytta vesicatoria (family Meloidae ), the dried bodies of which yield the pharmaceutical product cantharides

2. another name for cantharides

---

Etymology

Origin of Spanish fly

First recorded in 1400–50; so called from the fact that the beetles are found in abundance in Spain

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Spanish fly

As if creation contained any mineral, drug simple, leech, Spanish fly, gadfly, or showerbath, so soothing as a loving wife is to a man in affliction.

From A Terrible Temptation A Story of To-Day by Reade, Charles

It quickly induces a sharp burning pain, and it excites a destructive outward inflammation which enters much more into the true skin than that which is caused by an old fashioned blister of Spanish fly.

From Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure by Fernie, William Thomas

The Spanish fly is also occasionally found in the south of England.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 2 "Camorra" to "Cape Colony" by Various

The tendency to the formation of the bony growth, and the increase of its development after its actual formation, may often be checked by the application of a severe blister of Spanish fly.

From Special Report on Diseases of the Horse by Michener, Charles B.

I can remember how he laboriously explained to his examiner that the Spanish fly grew in Spain.

From The Man from Archangel and Other Tales of Adventure by Doyle, A. Conan