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.

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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

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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

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

It was thought that the poison of the Spanish fly existed in the body, while the head and wings contained the antidote.

From Three Thousand Years of Mental Healing by Cutten, George Barton

Crabs-claws, Spanish fly, and dragon roots, given three mornings before the new or full moon, was suggested as a specific by Sir Robert Gordon.

From Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine by Pyle, Walter L. (Walter Lytle)

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