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locust |
6 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Locust \Lo"cust\, n. [L. locusta locust, grasshopper. Cf {Lobster}.] 1. (Zo["o]l.) Any one of numerous species of long-winged, migratory, orthopterous insects, of the family {Acridid[ae]}, allied to the grasshoppers; esp., ({Edipoda, or Pachytylus migratoria}, and {Acridium perigrinum}, of Southern Europe, Asia, and Africa. In the United States the related species with similar habits are usually called {grasshoppers}. See {Grasshopper}. Note: These insects are at times so numerous in Africa and the south of Asia as to devour every green thing and when they migrate, they fly in an immense cloud. In the United States the harvest flies are improperly called locusts. See {Cicada}. {Locust beetle} (Zo["o]l.), a longicorn beetle ({Cyllene robini[ae]}), which in the larval state, bores holes in the wood of the locust tree. Its color is brownish black, barred with yellow. Called also {locust borer}. {Locust bird} (Zo["o]l.) the rose-colored starling or pastor of India. See {Pastor}. {Locust hunter} (Zo["o]l.), an African bird; the beefeater. 2. [Etymol. uncertain.] (Bot.) The locust tree. See {Locust Tree} (definition, note, and phrases). {Locust bean} (Bot.), a commercial name for the sweet pod of the carob tree. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Praying \Pray"ing\, a. & n. from {Pray}, v. {Praying insect}, {locust}, or mantis (Zo["o]l.), a mantis, especially {Mantis religiosa}. See {Mantis}. {Praying machine}, or {Praying wheel}, a wheel on which prayers are pasted by Buddhist priests, who then put the wheel in rapid revolution. Each turn in supposed to have the efficacy of an oral repetition of all the prayers on the wheel. Sometimes it is moved by a stream. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Harvest \Har"vest\, n. [OE. harvest, hervest, AS h[ae]rfest autumn; akin to LG harfst D. herfst OHG. herbist, G. herbst, and prob. to L. carpere to pluck, Gr ? fruit. Cf {Carpet}.] 1. The gathering of a crop of any kind the ingathering of the crops; also the season of gathering grain and fruits, late summer or early autumn. Seedtime and harvest . . . shall not cease. --Gen viii. 22. At harvest, when corn is ripe. --Tyndale. 2. That which is reaped or ready to be reaped or gath??ed; a crop, as of grain (wheat, maize, etc.), or fruit. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. --Joel iii. 13. To glean the broken ears after the man That the main harvest reaps. --Shak. 3. The product or result of any exertion or labor; gain; reward. The pope's principal harvest was in the jubilee. --Fuller. The harvest of a quiet eye. --Wordsworth. {Harvest fish} (Zo["o]l.), a marine fish of the Southern United States ({Stromateus alepidotus}); -- called {whiting} in Virginia. Also applied to the dollar fish. {Harvest fly} (Zo["o]l.), an hemipterous insect of the genus {Cicada}, often called {locust}. See {Cicada}. {Harvest lord}, the head reaper at a harvest. [Obs.] --Tusser. {Harvest mite} (Zo["o]l.), a minute European mite ({Leptus autumnalis}), of a bright crimson color, which is troublesome by penetrating the skin of man and domestic animals; -- called also {harvest louse}, and {harvest bug}. {Harvest moon}, the moon near the full at the time of harvest in England, or about the autumnal equinox, when by reason of the small angle that is made by the moon's orbit with the horizon, it rises nearly at the same hour for several days. {Harvest mouse} (Zo["o]l.), a very small European field mouse ({Mus minutus}). It builds a globular nest on the stems of wheat and other plants. {Harvest queen}, an image pepresenting Ceres, formerly carried about on the last day of harvest. --Milton. {Harvest spider}. (Zo["o]l.) See {Daddy longlegs}. From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]: locust n 1: migratory grasshoppers of warm regions having short antennae 2: hardwood from any of various locust trees 3: any of various hard-wooded trees of the family Leguminosae [syn: {locust tree}] From U.S. Gazetteer (1990) [gazetteer]: Locust, NC (city, FIPS 38860) Location: 35.25814 N, 80.43060 W Population (1990): 1940 (739 housing units) Area: 9.6 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water) Zip code(s): 28097 From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]: Locust There are ten Hebrew words used in Scripture to signify locust. In the New Testament locusts are mentioned as forming part of the food of John the Baptist (Matt. 3:4; Mark 1:6). By the Mosaic law they were reckoned "clean," so that he could lawfully eat them The name also occurs in Rev. 9:3, 7, in allusion to this Oriental devastating insect. Locusts belong to the class of Orthoptera, i.e., straight-winged. They are of many species. The ordinary Syrian locust resembles the grasshopper, but is larger and more destructive. "The legs and thighs of these insects are so powerful that they can leap to a height of two hundred times the length of their bodies. When so raised they spread their wings and fly so close together as to appear like one compact moving mass." Locusts are prepared as food in various ways. Sometimes they are pounded, and then mixed with flour and water, and baked into cakes; "sometimes boiled, roasted, or stewed in butter, and then eaten." They were eaten in a preserved state by the ancient Assyrians. The devastations they make in Eastern lands are often very appalling. The invasions of locusts are the heaviest calamites that can befall a country. "Their numbers exceed computation: the hebrews called them 'the countless,' and the Arabs knew them as 'the darkeners of the sun.' Unable to guide their own flight, though capable of crossing large spaces, they are at the mercy of the wind, which bears them as blind instruments of Providence to the doomed region given over to them for the time. Innumerable as the drops of water or the sands of the seashore, their flight obscures the sun and casts a thick shadow on the earth (Ex. 10:15; Judg. 6:5; 7:12; Jer. 46:23; Joel 2:10). It seems indeed as if a great aerial mountain, many miles in breadth, were advancing with a slow, unresting progress. Woe to the countries beneath them if the wind fall and let them alight! They descend unnumbered as flakes of snow and hide the ground. It may be 'like the garden of Eden before them but behind them is a desolate wilderness. At their approach the people are in anguish; all faces lose their colour' (Joel 2:6). No walls can stop them no ditches arrest them fires kindled in their path are forthwith extinguished by the myriads of their dead, and the countless armies march on (Joel 2:8, 9). If a door or a window be open they enter and destroy everything of wood in the house. Every terrace, court, and inner chamber is filled with them in a moment. Such an awful visitation swept over Egypt (Ex. 10:1-19), consuming before it every green thing and stripping the trees, till the land was bared of all signs of vegetation. A strong north-west wind from the Mediterranean swept the locusts into the Red Sea.", Geikie's Hours, etc., ii., 149.
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