Other forms: dragonflies
A dragonfly is a long-bodied insect with two pairs of glittering wings. A darting dragonfly, dragonflies over the pond, a dragonfly nymph.
It spends most of its life underwater as a nymph and only weeks in the air, and it is among the most successful hunters alive, catching most of what it chases. Ancestors of it had wings the width of a hawk's.
1noundragonflyA long-bodied insect with two pairs of glittering wings.
“A blue dragonfly hovered over the pond and then darted away.”
dragonfly is an insect.
Dragon plus fly, from the fierce look of the insect.
From dragon + fly. From dragon + fly. Compare drakefly (“mayfly”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA