locust
UK/ˈləʊ.kəst//ˈloʊ.kəst/
locust noun: any of the grasshoppers, often polyphenic and usually swarming, in the family Acrididae that are very destructive to crops and other vegetation, especially migratory locusts (Locusta migratoria).
Noun
locust (plural locusts)
- Any of the grasshoppers, often polyphenic and usually swarming, in the family Acrididae that are very destructive to crops and other vegetation, especially migratory locusts (Locusta migratoria).
- 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.1789, Olaudah Equiano, chapter 9, in The Interesting Narrative, volume I
- Any of various often leguminous trees and shrubs, especially of the genera Robinia and Gleditsia; locust tree.
- A cicada.
- A mainlander.
- 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.1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, published 1861
Verb
locust (third-person singular simple present locusts, present participle locusting, simple past and past participle locusted)
- 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 […]1875, Alfred Tennyson, Queen Mary: A Drama, London: Henry S. King & Co., →OCLC, (please specify the page)
- This Philip and the black-faced swarms of Spain,
Proper noun capitalized: Locust
Locust (plural Locusts)
- A surname.
locust meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
locust in Hindi
- type of grasshopper
- टिड्डी ṭiḍḍī
locust in Tamil
- type of grasshopper
- வெட்டுக்கிளி veṭṭukkiḷi
locust in Marathi
- locust
- टोळ ṭoḷ
locust in Urdu
- type of grasshopper
- ٹِڈّی ṭiḍḍī
More languagesFewer languages
- locust in Bengali
- পঙ্গপাল poṅgopal
- locust in Telugu
- మిడత miḍata
- locust in Malayalam
- വെട്ടുകിളി veṭṭukiḷi
- locust in Kannada
- ಮಿಡತೆ miḍate
- locust in Punjabi
- ਟਿੱਡੀ ṭiḍḍī
- locust in Gujarati
- તીડ tīḍ
- locust in Odia
- ପଙ୍ଗପାଳ paṅgapāḷa, ଫଡ଼ିଙ୍ଗ phaṛiṅga
- locust in Sanskrit
- शलभ śalabha
- locust in Pashto
- ملخ moláx
- locust in Tagalog
- balang
- locust in Arabic
- جَرَادَة jarāda
- locust in Malay
- belalang
- locust in Thai
- ปาทังกา bpaa-tang-gâa
- locust in Vietnamese
- châu chấu
- locust in Myanmar
- ကျိုင်းကောင် kyuing:kaung, ကျိုင် kyuing
Examples of locust in a sentence
- We had a hard year last year, with the locust swarms and all that.
- The trees were left bare after the swarm of locusts devoured all the leaves.
- Ten Biblical plagues over Egypt, ranging from locusts to the death of the crown prince, finally forced Pharaoh to let Moses's people go.
Forms of locust
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | locusts |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | locusts |
| present participle | locusting |
| past participle | locusted |
| past | locusted |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Locusts |
Origin of 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 loan from Cantonese 蝗蟲 /蝗虫 (wong4 cung4), also meaning "locust".
Unknown.
Words formed from locust
- African locust
- American locust
- antilocust
- Australian plague locust
- bald locust
- black locust
- Bombay locust
- bristly locust
- brown locust
- camel locust
- Carolina locust
- cave locust
- clammy locust
- desert locust
- differential locust
- Egyptian locust
- grouse locust
- honey locust
- hoofed locust
- Italian locust
- Kelsey locust
- kosher locust
- locustal
- locust bean
- locust borer
- locustlike
- locust stick
- migratory locust
- mock locust
- Moroccan locust
- moss locust
- mossy locust
- New Mexican locust
- New Mexico locust
- plague locust
- post locust
- praying locust
- pygmy locust
- red-legged locust
- red locust
- river locust
- Rocky Mountain locust
- rose-flowering locust
- sea locust
- seventeen-year locust
- shipmast locust
- spotted locust
- spur-throated locust
- of Australia
- swamp locust
- sweet locust
- thirteen-year locust
- thorn locust
- thorny locust
- tree locust
- water locust
- West Indian locust
- white locust
- yellow locust
Phrases with locust
Words that rhyme with locust
Questions about locust
- What does locust mean?
- Locust means any of the grasshoppers, often polyphenic and usually swarming, in the family Acrididae that are very destructive to crops and other vegetation, especially migratory locusts (Locusta migratoria).
- What is locust in Hindi?
- Locust in Hindi is टिड्डी (ṭiḍḍī). See Locust meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is locust?
- Locust can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce locust?
- Locust is pronounced /ˈləʊ.kəst/ (UK).
- What is the plural of locust?
- The plural of locust is locusts.
Words near locust in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: locust (page history and authors); Locust (page history and authors); टोळ (Marathi) (page history and authors); તીડ (Gujarati) (page history and authors); ପଙ୍ଗପାଳ (Odia) (page history and authors); शलभ (Sanskrit) (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: en-us-locust.ogg.
Cite this entry: “locust.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/locust. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.