housefly
noun
house·fly
| \ ˈhau̇s-ˌflī
\
\
Definition of housefly
: a cosmopolitan dipteran fly (Musca domestica) that is often about human habitations and may act as a mechanical vector of diseases (such as typhoid fever)
also
: any of various flies of similar appearance or habitat
Examples of housefly in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Japanese quails were also among the list of animals that were tested along with insects such as houseflies and moths. — Matt Mcnulty, PEOPLE.com, "NASA Fed Moon Dust to Cockroaches to Test for Contamination after the 1969 Lunar Landing," 30 July 2019 Birds were represented by Japanese quail; brown shrimp, pink shrimp and oysters were used to represent shellfish; houseflies and moths joined the cockroaches to represent insects; and guppies and minnows were used to represent fish. — Allen Kim, CNN, "NASA fed some of its precious Apollo 11 lunar samples to cockroaches and mice," 29 July 2019 The total force is roughly the same as the weight of a housefly landing on your hand on Earth. — Robert Z. Pearlman, Scientific American, "Solar Sailing Success: Planetary Society Deploys LightSail 2," 23 July 2019 To Magdalena, the American student was like a housefly: an annoyance, certainly, but mostly a harmless one. — Stephanie Green, chicagotribune.com, "2019 Algren Awards: Finalist: Host Mother," 20 July 2019 To put this in perspective, that’s about equal to the weight of a housefly on your hand on Earth. — Daniel Oberhaus, WIRED, "SpaceX Is Launching a Solar Sail the Size of a Boxing Ring," 24 June 2019 Inspectors found several violations including the presence of flies and several active housefly infestations near food prep and eating areas. — Lillian Reed, baltimoresun.com, "How many passengers got sick on cruises leaving Baltimore? The CDC has an answer for that and more.," 13 June 2019 Besides roaches, bed bugs, head lice, houseflies, mosquitoes and other common insects in our houses have developed resistance to our pesticides. — Rob Dunn, Discover Magazine, "Our Attempts to Eradicate Insects are Just Making them Resistant to Pesticides," 16 Nov. 2018 The predators hunt grubs, aphids, and houseflies — other pests that annoy at outdoor dinners and in your garden. — Jean Nick, Good Housekeeping, "How to Wasp-Proof Your Backyard This Summer," 26 July 2018These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'housefly.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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More Definitions for housefly
housefly
noun
English Language Learners Definition of housefly
: a common fly that lives in or near people's houses
See the full definition for housefly in the English Language Learners Dictionary
housefly
noun
house·fly
| \ ˈhau̇s-ˌflī
\
\
plural houseflies
Kids Definition of housefly
: a fly that is common in houses and may carry disease germs
housefly
noun
house·fly
| \ -ˌflī
\
\
plural houseflies
Medical Definition of housefly
: a cosmopolitan dipteran fly of the genus Musca (M. domestica) that is often found about human habitations and may act as a mechanical vector of diseases (as typhoid fever)
also
: any of various flies of similar appearance or habitat
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