See Also: Locust(medicine)
locust gum(medicine)
locust(dictionary)
locust(encyclopedia)
locust(dictionary)
The Inn On Locust(tourism)
locust tree(medicine)
water locust(medicine)

locust (iou)



locust noun & verb. ME.
[Old & mod. French locuste from Latin locusta locust, crustacean (cf. LOBSTER noun1 & verb).]
A. noun.
Any grasshopper of the family Acrididae (the short-horned grasshoppers); esp. any of several species of Africa and the warm parts of Asia and the Americas that form large migratory swarms highly destructive to vegetation. ME.
b. fig. A person of devouring or destructive propensities. M16.
c. A grasshopper of the family Tettigoniidae (long-horned grasshoppers). Chiefly Austral. M19.
d. A cicada, esp. Cicada septendecim, the seventeen-year locust. US & Austral. M19.
The pod of the cassia, Cassia fistula; the pod of the carob tree, thought to resemble a locust. E17.
In full locust tree. Any of various leguminous trees; esp. (a) = CAROB 2; (b) a tree of the W. Indies and Guyana, Hymenaea courbaril; (c) N. Amer. = ACACIA 2 (also black locust); (d) NZ a kowhai, Sophora tetraptera. E17.
honey locust tree: see HONEY noun.
b. A club of the wood of the N. American locust tree, formerly carried by US police. US. M19.
Comb.: locust bean the fruit of the carob tree; locust-berry the fruit of a W. Indian tree, Byrsonima coriacea (family Malpighiaceae); the tree itself; locust-bird S. Afr. any of various birds (esp. certain pratincoles) that eat locusts, spec. (more fully great locust-bird) the European white stork, Ciconia ciconia; locust-eater S. Afr. = locust-bird above; locust tree: see sense 3 above; locust years years of poverty and hardship.
b. verb intrans. Swarm (and devour) as locusts do. rare. L19.