locust

C2 Topic:Food & Drink

US /ˈloʊ.kəst/ UK /ˈləʊ.kəst/ See IPA manual

Freq #32333

Meanings

1

noun
A fruit or pod of a carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua).

Among other articles, they brought with them a great quantity of locusts, which are a kind of pulse, sweet and pleasant to the palate, and in shape resembling French beans, but longer.
2

noun
A dose of laudanum.

I took my flogging like a stone. If I had sung, some of the convicts would have given me some lush with a locust in it (laudanum hocussing), and when I was asleep would have given me a crack on the head that would have laid me straight.
3

verb
To come in a swarm.

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 […].
4

noun
migratory grasshoppers of warm regions having short antennae

Verb forms

Verb forms are not available for this word yet.

Thesaurus

Word family

Forms locusts

Derived forms antilocustlocustallocustlike

Appears in

Phrases (1)

See all

locust bean
A carob pod containing seeds and sweet pulp used in food or animal feed.

Noun + noun

Simplified etymology

Locust entered English in the Middle Ages and derives from Latin locusta, which could denote either the insect or a lobster. It consequently shares its ultimate origin with lobster.

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *lek-der.? Latin locusta Anglo-Norman locustebor. Middle English locuste English locust Inherited from Middle English locuste, locust, from Anglo-Norman locuste, Middle French locuste, and their source, Latin locustam (“locust, crustacean, lobster”, accusative of locusta). Doublet of langouste. Noun sense 3 (“kind of tree”), originally referring to the carob (compare locust bean), is based on the resemblance of the trees' beanlike seed pods to the insect and is likely a semantic loan from Ancient Greek ἀκρίς (akrís). Noun sense 5 (“mainlander”) is a semantic...

Topics

Food & Drink

External links

# locust

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2
**Part of speech:** noun, verb
**IPA (US):** /ˈloʊ.kəst/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈləʊ.kəst/
**Frequency rank:** 32333

## Meanings
1. A fruit or pod of a carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua).
2. A dose of laudanum.
3. To come in a swarm.
4. migratory grasshoppers of warm regions having short antennae

## Examples
- Among other articles, they brought with them a great quantity of locusts, which are a kind of pulse, sweet and pleasant to the palate, and in shape resembling French beans, but longer.
- I took my flogging like a stone. If I had sung, some of the convicts would have given me some lush with a locust in it (laudanum hocussing), and when I was asleep would have given me a crack on the head that would have laid me straight.
- 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 […].

## Derived Forms
- antilocust
- locustal
- locustlike

## Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *lek-der.? Latin locusta Anglo-Norman locustebor. Middle English locuste English locust Inherited from Middle English locuste, locust, from Anglo-Norman locuste, Middle French locuste, and their source, Latin locustam (“locust, crustacean, lobster”, accusative of locusta). Doublet of langouste. Noun sense 3 (“kind of tree”), originally referring to the carob (compare locust bean), is based on the resemblance of the trees' beanlike seed pods to the insect and is likely a semantic loan from Ancient Greek ἀκρίς (akrís). Noun sense 5 (“mainlander”) is a semantic...

## Topics
- Food & Drink

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