Word.ws English Dictionary

cockchafer

/ˈkɒkˌt͡ʃeɪfɚ/

cockchafer noun: any of the large European beetles from the genus Melolontha that are destructive to vegetation.

cockchafer: any of the large European beetles from the genus Melolontha that are destructive to vegetation
Image: AfroBrazilian, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

cockchafer (plural cockchafers)

  1. Any of the large European beetles from the genus Melolontha that are destructive to vegetation.
    • To the person who shall discover to the Society an effectual method, verified by repeated and satisfactory trials, of destroying the Grub of the Cockchafer, so destructive to the roots of all sorts of Corn, Pease, Beans, and Turneps, the gold medal.1793, “Premiums offered by the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, in the year MDCCLXXXVI”, in Transactions of the Society Instituted at London, for the Encouragement...
    • His impassioned words buzzed about my ears like cockchafers round the top of the lime-trees.1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 250
  2. Any of various other similar beetles, such as of the genera Acrossidius, Cyphochilus, Rhopaea, etc.

cockchafer meaning in Persian, Thai and Vietnamese

cockchafer in Persian

beetle of genus Melolontha
سوسک طلایی susk talâyi

cockchafer in Thai

beetle of genus Melolontha
แมงอีนูน mɛɛng-i-nuun, แมงกีนูน mɛɛng-gi-nuun

cockchafer in Vietnamese

beetle of genus Melolontha
con bọ da

Synonyms of cockchafer

Forms of cockchafer

pluralcockchafers

Origin of cockchafer

From cock (“male bird”) + chafer (“beetle”). The Oxford English Dictionary speculates that the name may relate to a resemblance of antennae to coxcomb, or to the beetle’s size. Compare French hanneton (“cockchafer”), ultimately from Frankish *hanō (“rooster”). First attested in the late 17th century.

Phrases with cockchafer

Questions about cockchafer

What does cockchafer mean?
Cockchafer means any of the large European beetles from the genus Melolontha that are destructive to vegetation.
What is cockchafer in Persian?
Cockchafer in Persian is سوسک طلایی (susk talâyi). See Cockchafer meaning in Persian.
What part of speech is cockchafer?
Cockchafer is a noun.
How do you pronounce cockchafer?
Cockchafer is pronounced /ˈkɒkˌt͡ʃeɪfɚ/.
What is the plural of cockchafer?
The plural of cockchafer is cockchafers.

Words near cockchafer in the dictionary

  1. cockbulge
  2. cockbulges
  3. Cockburn
  4. Cockburns
  5. Cockburnspath
  6. cockchafer
  7. cockchafers
  8. Cockcroft
  9. Cockcroft-Walton generator
  10. Cockcroft-Walton generators
  11. Cockcrofts

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cockchafer (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-cockchafer.wav.

Cite this entry: “cockchafer.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cockchafer. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.