Weevil definition
Any of numerous beetles of the superfamily Curculionoidea, especially the snout beetles, that characteristically have a downward-curving snout and are destructive to nuts, fruits, stems, and roots.
noun
Any of various families of beetles (esp. Curculionidae) having the head prolonged into a projecting beak that usually curves downward, and including many pest species that feed, esp. as larvae, on cotton, fruits, grain, etc.
noun
Any of several small herbivorous beetles in the superfamily Curculionoidea. Many of them have a distinctive snout.
noun
Any of several small herbivorous beetles in the family Curculionidae belonging to the superfamily Curculionoidea.
noun
Any of several similar but more distantly related beetles such as the biscuit weevil.
noun
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Other Word Forms
Noun
Singular:
weevil
Plural:
weevilsOrigin of weevil
- Middle English wevel from Old English wifel webh- in Indo-European roots
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
- From Middle English wevel, from Old English wifel, from Proto-Germanic *wibilaz (compare Dutch tortwevel, Low German Scharnwevel, German Wiebel (“beetle, chafer")), from Proto-Indo-European *webÊ°el (compare Lithuanian vãbalas (“beetle, weevil"), dialectal Russian веблица (veblica, “intestinal worm")), from Proto-Indo-European *webÊ°-, *h₁webÊ°- (“to weave, wave"). More at weave and wave.
From Wiktionary