Search the Dictionary

law; the surface described by a point or line that moves according to a given law. Plane locus, a locus that is a straight line, or a circle. -- Solid locus, a locus that is one of the conic sections.

The locust tree. See Locust Tree (definition, note, and phrases). Locust bean (Bot.), a commercial name for the sweet pod of the carob tree.

A large North American tree of the genus Robinia (R. Pseudacacia), producing large slender racemes of white, fragrant, papilionaceous flowers, and often cultivated as an ornamental tree. In England it is called acacia.

The spikelet or flower cluster of grasses. Gray.

The European cricket warbler.

Pertaining to, or derived from, the locust; -- formerly used to designate a supposed acid.

Swarming and devastating like locusts. [R.] Tennyson.

A thorny leguminous tree (Gleditschia monosperma) which grows in the swamps of the Mississippi valley.

the water is pumped out the vessel is lifted. Camel bird (Zoöl.), the ostrich. -- Camel locust (Zoöl.), the mantis. -- Camel's thorn (Bot.), a low, leguminous shrub (Alhagi maurorum) of the Arabian desert, from which exudes a sweetish gum, which is one of the substances called manna.

powerful muscles. A noted American species (C. septendecim) is called the seventeen year locust. Another common species is the dogday cicada.

or ssqueaking sound, as by the friction of hard substances; as, shoes creak. The creaking locusts with my voice conspire. Dryden. Doors upon their hinges creaked. Tennyson.

To make dark or black; to deprite of light; to obscure; as, a darkened room. They [locusts] covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened. Ex. x. 15. So spake the Sovran Voice; and clouds began To darken all the hill. Milton.

of a thread gradually wound upon the former, or unwound from it. See Involute. It is the locus of the centers of all the circles which are osculatory to the given curve or evolvent.

The locus described by any point attached to a curve that slips continuously on another fixed curve, the movable curve having no rotation at any instant.

Any jumping, orthopterous insect, of the families Acrididæ and Locustidæ. The species and genera are very numerous. The former family includes the Western grasshopper or locust (Caloptenus spretus), noted for the great extent of its ravages in the region beyond the Mississippi. In the Eastern United States the red-legg…

ar fish. -- Harvest fly (Zoöl.), an hemipterous insect of the genus Cicada, often called locust. See Cicada. -- Harvest lord, the head reaper at a harvest. [Obs.] Tusser. -- Harvest mite (Zoöl.), a minute European mite (Leptus autumnalis), of a bright crimson color, which is troublesome by penetrating the skin of ma…

nouns (Gram.), nouns having different genders in the singular and plural numbers; as, hic locus, of the masculine gender in the singular, and hi loci and hæc loca, both masculine and neuter in the plural; hoc cælum, neuter in the singular; hi cæli, masculine in the plural. -- Heterogeneous quantities (Math.), such qua…

Of equal value. Isorropic line (in a diagram) (Geom.), the locus of all the points for which a specified function has a constant value. Newcomb.

A large, green, arboreal, orthopterous insect (Cyrtophyllus concavus) of the family Locustidæ, common in the United States. The males have stridulating organs at the bases of the front wings. During the summer and autumn, in the evening, the males make a peculiar, loud, shrill sound, resembling the combination Katy-did…

natural order of plants (Leguminosæ), which bear legumes, including peas, beans, clover, locust trees, acacias, and mimosas.