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horsefly

US/ˈhoɹsˌflaɪ/
nounB2+Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,934 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: horseflies

A horsefly is a large fly whose bite draws blood. Bitten by a horsefly, swat the horsefly, horseflies near the water.

Only the female bites, and she cuts the skin rather than piercing it, which is why the bite hurts at the time and swells afterwards. They hunt by sight near water and livestock on still warm days.

Bruce Marlin · CC BY-SA 2.5

Definitions of horsefly

  1. 1nounhorseflyA large fly whose bite draws blood.B2+

    “A horsefly bit me on the leg while we were walking by the river.”

horsefly is an insect.

Where it comes from

Horse plus fly, recorded in Middle English, from the flies that torment horses.

  1. Middle English

    horse fliȝe

  2. English, today

    horsefly

From Middle English horse fliȝe, equivalent to horse + fly.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Insects & Sea Life

Practise this word

horsefly in the wild

  • The horsefly can then extract and ingest the animal's blood.

    Tabanus

  • Stonemyia velutina, the velvety stonian horsefly, is a rare species of fly in the family Tabanidae endemic to California.

    Stonemyia velutina

  • Tabanus bromius, sometimes called the band-eyed brown horsefly, is a species of biting horseflies.

    Tabanus bromius

  • Tabanus sudeticus, also known as the dark giant horsefly, is a species of biting horse-fly.

    Tabanus sudeticus

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.