weevil
Syllables: wee·vilUK/ˈwiːv(ə)l/US/ˈwiːvɪl/
weevil noun: any of many tens of thousands of species of herbivorous beetles, ranging in size from tiny to large, in the superfamily Curculionoidea, the most characteristic species having the head projecting in a distinctive snout with the mouthparts at the tip.
Noun
weevil (plural weevils)
- Any of many tens of thousands of species of herbivorous beetles, ranging in size from tiny to large, in the superfamily Curculionoidea, the most characteristic species having the head projecting in a distinctive snout with the mouthparts at the tip.
- Any of many tens of thousands of species of herbivorous beetles of various sizes, in the family Curculionidae within the superfamily Curculionoidea.
- Synonyms:
- snout beetle, true weevil, nunu
- Any of many similar, but more distantly related, beetles such as the biscuit weevil (Stegobium paniceum).
- A loathsome person.
- But you accuse other men of villainy with too easy a tongue, you weevil. I have never wanted you in this matter, and I have said so.1950, Jack Lindsay, Fires in Smithfield. A Novel of Mary Tudor’s Reign, London: The Bodley Head, →OCLC, page 201
- Have you tried doing it yourself? It's not easy. I was hoping to illustrate this article with some self-created buzzwords for leftwingers to use. The first one I came up with was "molehill mountaineer", a pejorative term to describe the sort of perpetually furious rightwing weevil who spends their...2010 August 30, Charlie Brooker, “Buzzwords for blowhards”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 30 May 2023
weevil meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Telugu and Malay
weevil in Tamil
- அந்துப்பூச்சி வகை, நீண்மூஞ்சிவண்டு, மூக்கு வண்டு
weevil in Urdu
- گھن
weevil in Telugu
- a weevil, or canker worm, a book worm, a round white worm, which looks harmless but is destructive
- నంగనాచి naṅganāci
weevil in Malay
- beetle in the superfamily Curculionoidea
- bubuk
More languagesFewer languages
- weevil in Myanmar
- ဆင်ပိုး hcangpui:
Synonyms of weevil
Forms of weevil
| plural | weevils |
|---|
Origin of weevil
From Middle English wevel, from Old English wifel (“beetle”), from Proto-West Germanic *wibil, from Proto-Germanic *wibilaz, from Proto-Indo-European *webʰel-, from *(h₁)webʰ- (“to wave, to weave”), said to be from the woven appearance of a weevil’s larval case, + *-el-, *-l̥- (diminutive or attributive suffix); see also wave and weave. Compare Old Saxon *wivil (“beetle”); Middle Low German wevel; Old High German wibil, wipil (modern German Wiebel (“beetle; chafer”)); Lithuanian vãbalas (“beetle; weevil”); Old Norse vifill, as in tordyfill (“dung beetle, scarab”) (whence Dutch tortwevel; Icelandic tordýfill, Norwegian tordivel, Old English tordwifel, Swedish tordyvel); dialectal Russian ве́блица (véblica, “intestinal worm”).
Words formed from weevil
- acorn weevil
- alfalfa weevil
- apple blossom weevil
- apple flea weevil
- apple weevil
- ash weevil
- banana root weevil
- banana weevil
- bean weevil
- biscuit weevil
- black vine weevil
- black weevil
- boll weevil
- broad-bean weevil
- broad-nosed weevil
- cabbage seedpod weevil
- cabbage seed weevil
- carrot weevil
- chestnut weevil
- clover leaf weevil
- clover-seed weevil
- clover weevil
- coffee-bean weevil
- corn weevil
- cotton-boll weevil
- cowpea weevil
- dicky rice weevil
- drugstore weevil
- Egyptian alfalfa weevil
- fern weevil
- flax weevil
- flea weevil
- flour weevil
- flower weevil
- Fuller's rose weevil
- fungus weevil
- giraffe weevil
- gorse seed weevil
- gorse weevil
- grain weevil
- granary weevil
- grapevine weevil
- greater rice weevil
- lesser clover leaf weevil
- maize weevil
- mango weevil
- New York weevil
- New Zealand giraffe weevil
- ngaio weevil
- nut weevil
- pales weevil
- palmetto weevil
- palm weevil
- peach weevil
- pea weevil
- pecan weevil
- pepper weevil
- pine gall weevil
- pine reproduction weevil
- pine root-collar weevil
Phrases with weevil
Words that rhyme with weevil
Questions about weevil
- What does weevil mean?
- Weevil means any of many tens of thousands of species of herbivorous beetles, ranging in size from tiny to large, in the superfamily Curculionoidea, the most characteristic species having the head projecting in a distinctive snout with the mouthparts at the tip.
- What is weevil in Tamil?
- Weevil in Tamil is அந்துப்பூச்சி வகை, நீண்மூஞ்சிவண்டு, மூக்கு வண்டு. See Weevil meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is weevil?
- Weevil is a noun.
- How do you pronounce weevil?
- Weevil is pronounced /ˈwiːv(ə)l/ (UK).
- What is the plural of weevil?
- The plural of weevil is weevils.
Words near weevil in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: weevil (page history and authors); weevil (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); weevil (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); నంగనాచి (Telugu) (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-au-weevil.ogg.
Cite this entry: “weevil.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/weevil. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.