locust
Pronunciation
  • (British) IPA: /ˈləʊ.kəst/
  • (America) IPA: /ˈloʊ.kəst/
Noun

locust (plural locusts)

  1. Any of the grasshoppers, often polyphenic and usually swarming, in the family Acrididae that are very destructive to crops and other vegetation.
    1. (especially) The migratory locust (Locusta migratoria).
    2. The American locust (Schistocerca americana) (does not swarm).
    3. The Australian plague locust (Chortoicetes terminifera).
    4. The Bombay locust (Nomadacris succincta).
    5. The brown locust (Locustana pardalina).
    6. The desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria).
    7. The Italian locust (Calliptamus italicus).
    8. The Moroccan locust (Dociostaurus maroccanus).
    9. The red locust (Nomadacris septemfasciata).
    10. The Rocky Mountain locust (Melanoplus spretus); now extinct.
    11. The spur-throated locust (Austracris guttulosa), of Australia.
    12. tree locust (Anacridium spp.).
      1. Anacridium aegyptium (Egyptian locust).
      2. Anacridium melanorhodon, of Africa.
      3. Anacridium wernerellum, of Africa.
  2. A locust tree.
  3. (proscribed) A cicada.
Translations Verb

locust (locusts, present participle locusting; past and past participle locusted)

  1. (intransitive) To come in a swarm.
    • ?, Alfred Tennyson, Queen Mary
      This Philip and the black-faced swarms of Spain,
      The hardest, cruellest people in the world,
      Come locusting upon us, eat us up,
      Confiscate lands, goods, money […]



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