flesh-flyn.
1. A fly which deposits its eggs (or, if viviparous, its larvæ) in dead flesh; a blowfly (as Musca vomitoria or Sarcophaga carnaria). Used by Wyclif to render Latin cynomyia.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > order Diptera or flies > [noun] > suborder Cyclorrhapha > family Calliphoridae > member of
flesh-fly1388
butcher fly1633
blowfly1729
yellow-bottle1855
bush-fly1934
1388 J. Wyclif Psalms lxxvii. 45 He sente a fleisch flie in to hem, and it eet hem.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Gött.) l. 5956 Hungri flies..To fless-flies þai war likest.
c1440 W. Hylton Scala Perfeccionis (1494) ii. xlii There dare no flesshe flye rest vpon the pottes brynke.
1556 J. Heywood Spider & Flie v. 9 A fleshe flie as big as a humble bee.
1658 J. Rowland tr. T. Moffett Theater of Insects in Topsell's Hist. Four-footed Beasts (rev. ed.) 934 The Flesh-fly..is the biggest of all other, he hath a reddish head, very greedy of flesh.
1768 G. White Let. 18 June in Nat. Hist. Selborne (1789) 48 The maggots which turn to flesh flies.
1861 R. T. Hulme tr. C. H. Moquin-Tandon Elements Med. Zool. ii. iv. i. 237 The Flesh Fly..produces a constant buzzing noise.
2. figurative of persons.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > consumption of food or drink > appetite > excessive consumption of food or drink > [noun] > gluttony > glutton
glutton?c1225
glutc1394
globberc1400
glofferc1440
gluttoner1482
gourmanda1492
ravener1496
belly1526
golofer1529
lurcher1530
cormorant1531
flesh-fly1532
full-belly1536
belly-godc1540
flap-sauce1540
gourmander1542
gully-gut1542
locust1545
glosser1549
greedy-guts1550
hungry gut1552
belly-slave1562
fill-belly1563
grand paunch1569
belly-paunch1570
belly-swainc1571
trencher-slave1571
slapsauce1573
gorche1577
helluo1583
gormandizer1589
eat-all1598
engorger1598
guts1598
guller1604
gourmandist1607
barathrum1609
eatnell1611
snapsauce1611
Phaeacian?1614
gutling1617
overeater1621
polyphage1623
tenterbelly1628
gut-head1629
stiffgut1630
gobble-guts1632
gulist1632
polyphagian1658
fill-paunch1659
gype1662
gulchin1671
stretch-gut1673
gastrolater1694
gundy-gut1699
guttler1732
gobbler1755
trencher-hero1792
gorger1817
polyphagist1819
battenera1849
stuff-guts1875
chowhound1917
gannet1929
Billy Bunter1939
guzzle-guts1959
garbage can1963
foodaholic1965
1532 T. More Confut. Tyndale in Wks. 715 Esaus, and reprobates, and very carnall fleshflyes.
1611 J. Speed Hist. Great Brit. viii. ii. 387/1 Those flesh flies hauing once tasted the sweet, though often beaten off, would not long bee kept away.
1782 W. Cowper Progress of Error in Poems 324 These flesh-flies of the land, Who fasten without mercy on the fair.
1825 T. B. Macaulay Milton in Edinb. Rev. Aug. 326 If..there be any thing unsound, these flesh-flies detect it with an unerring instinct.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1896; most recently modified version published online June 2021).
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