Dictionary

blowfly en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈbloʊˌflaɪ/ (General-American)
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From blow (“to infest with maggots by depositing eggs upon flesh”) + fly.

Meanings

1. Any of various flies of the family Calliphoridae that lay their eggs in rotting meat, dung, or open wounds.
   • The blowfly was her next victim, but an unexciting one. Pulling off its legs, she placed it with the hornet, and both lay side by side unprotestingly. 1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 168:
   • The flies that troubled me most were a large kind of blue-bottle or blow-fly. These settled in swarms on my bird skins when first put out to dry, filling their plumage with masses of eggs, which, if neglected, the next day produced maggots. 1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 329:
   • What is a blow-fly? That is what I thought when I saw them: blow-flies. Is there something dead around here that has not yet begun to stink? I cannot discover where they are coming from; they just appear in the light of the lamp, attracted by the warmth, I suppose, and fly up against the bulb and then drop stunned on the table and flop about groggily until I sweep them away with my sleeve. 1993, John Banville, Ghosts:

Forms

Hyponyms

blue-bottle fly · greenbottle · green-bottle fly · blowie · bluebottle

Relateds

flyblow · flesh-fly · flyblown · flesh fly · fleshfly

Synonyms

bottlefly · meat fly

Translations (38)

nn spyfluge (flies of the family Calliphoridae) · mi rango (flies of the family Calliphoridae) · cs bzučivka (flies of the family Calliphoridae) · fi raatokärpänen (flies of the family Calliphoridae) · sh zujara (flies of the family Calliphoridae) · sv spyfluga (flies of the family Calliphoridae) · ja クロバエ (flies of the family Calliphoridae) · el κρεατόμυγα (flies of the family Calliphoridae) · eo kaliforo (flies of the family Calliphoridae) · zku tupurra (flies of the family Calliphoridae) · mk мува месарка (flies of the family Calliphoridae) · sh zundarača (flies of the family Calliphoridae) · pl plujka (flies of the family Calliphoridae) · fr mouche à viande (flies of the family Calliphoridae) · ru мясна́я му́ха (flies of the family Calliphoridae) · bg муха месарка (flies of the family Calliphoridae) · tr kurt sineği (flies of the family Calliphoridae) · pt varejeira (flies of the family Calliphoridae) · is maðkafluga (flies of the family Calliphoridae) · nb spyflue (flies of the family Calliphoridae) · de Schmeißfliege (flies of the family Calliphoridae) · bi bluflae (flies of the family Calliphoridae) · nl bromvlieg (flies of the family Calliphoridae) · cmn 綠頭蒼蠅 /绿头苍蝇 (flies of the family Calliphoridae) · ms langau hijau (flies of the family Calliphoridae) · de Aasfliege (flies of the family Calliphoridae) · nl aasvlieg (flies of the family Calliphoridae) · de Schmeiße (flies of the family Calliphoridae) · cmn 麗蠅 /丽蝇 (flies of the family Calliphoridae) · gl vareixa (flies of the family Calliphoridae) · nv tséʼédǫ́ʼii dootłʼizhí (flies of the family Calliphoridae) · es moscardón (flies of the family Calliphoridae) · mi ngaro (flies of the family Calliphoridae) · mi rango tamumu (flies of the family Calliphoridae) · gl moscón (flies of the family Calliphoridae) · es moscarda (flies of the family Calliphoridae) · ota قورت سیڭكی (flies of the family Calliphoridae) · sh zunzara (flies of the family Calliphoridae)