locust
noun
lo·cust
| \ ˈlō-kəst
\
\
Definition of locust
1
: short-horned grasshopper
especially
: a migratory grasshopper often traveling in vast swarms and stripping the areas passed of all vegetation
2
: cicada
3a
: any of various leguminous trees: such as
(1)
: carob sense 1
(2)
: black locust
(3)
: honey locust
b
: the wood of a locust tree
Examples of locust in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Maple and locust trees shade the front stoops, and residents wait at eight-twenty on Tuesday mornings to move their cars for the street-sweeping truck. — Ian Frazier, The New Yorker, "When W. E. B. Du Bois Made a Laughingstock of a White Supremacist," 19 Aug. 2019 That leaves more opportunities for the cash-rich locusts to swarm around. — The Economist, "Buy-out firms embrace Germany—and vice versa," 9 Aug. 2019 Stewart is gone now, having grown out his beard and gone off into the wilderness to feed on locusts and wild honey. — Kevin D. Williamson, National Review, "A Herd Has No Mind," 11 July 2019 The whimsy too is Agami’s and Sharon’s, as are the more aggressive scenes, particularly the desert tango in which dancers become like a mob of dangerous amphibians or giant locusts or something. — Mark Swed, latimes.com, "Review: ‘Atlas’ needs no words to astonish as the L.A. Phil wraps its centennial season," 12 June 2019 When birds and snakes all but disappeared from the Dust Bowl, they were replaced by a biblical plague of locusts, unseen in the West for decades, with as many as 14 million of the ravenous grasshoppers to a mile. — Kevin Baker, Harper's magazine, "Where Our New World Begins," 10 May 2019 That’s like telling the difference between the dragonfly’s flutter and the hum of a locust. — Quanta Magazine, "The Neuroscience Behind Bad Decisions," 23 Aug. 2016 These operatives are the swarming locusts of politics, eating all in their path. — Peggy Noonan, WSJ, "The Odd Way We Announce for President Now," 17 Jan. 2019 Not the kind who descend like a swarm of noisy, hungry locusts, devouring the object of their desire. — Gully Wells, WSJ, "A Trip to the Florida of Yore," 12 Dec. 2018These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'locust.' 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 locust
locust
noun
English Language Learners Definition of locust
: a type of grasshopper that travels in very large groups and that can cause great destruction by eating crops
See the full definition for locust in the English Language Learners Dictionary
locust
noun
lo·cust
| \ ˈlō-kəst
\
\
Kids Definition of locust
1
: a grasshopper that moves in huge swarms and eats up the plants in its path
2
: cicada
3
: a tree with hard wood, leaves with many leaflets, and drooping flower clusters
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