cantharides
Pronunciation
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Pronunciation
- (British) IPA: /kænˈθæɹɪdiːz/
cantharides (uncountable)
- Spanish fly, a vesicant extracted from the beetle Lytta vesicatoria (syn. Cantharis vesicatoria), popularly held to have aphrodisiac properties.
- 1926, Hope Mirrlees, Lud-in-the-Mist, Ch.26:
- I can make the most subtle sauces yield up their secret—whether it be white arsenic, rosalgar, mercury sublimate, or cantharides.
- 1964, Anthony Burgess, Nothing Like The Sun:
- Speaking her name, it was as if he spake pure cantharides. ‘Quick,’ she panted. ‘There is time before they are all about. Again.’
- 1992, Will Self, Cock and Bull:
- It’s lucky that Carol had taken the precaution of obtaining some cantharides; without them the evening might have been a dead loss.
- 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage 2007, p. 612:
- Basically Louis's drug dealer and pimp, Richelieu, known for opium recipes to fit all occasions, is also credited with the introduction into France of the cantharides, or Spanish fly.
- 1926, Hope Mirrlees, Lud-in-the-Mist, Ch.26:
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.005