weevil

Any of many tens of thousands of species of herbivorous beetles, ranging in size from tiny to large, in the superfamily Curculionoidea, the most characteristic species having the head projecting in a distinctive snout with the mouthparts at the tip.

Noun

  1. Any of many tens of thousands of species of herbivorous beetles, ranging in size from tiny to large, in the superfamily Curculionoidea, the most characteristic species having the head projecting in a distinctive snout with the mouthparts at the tip.
  2. Any of many tens of thousands of species of herbivorous beetles of various sizes, in the family Curculionidae within the superfamily Curculionoidea.
  3. Any of many similar, but more distantly related, beetles such as the biscuit weevil (Stegobium paniceum).
  4. A loathsome person.
    • But you accuse other men of villainy with too easy a tongue, you weevil. I have never wanted you in this matter, and I have said so. - 1950, Jack Lindsay, Fires in Smithfield. A Novel of Mary Tudor’s Reign, London: The...
    • Have you tried doing it yourself? It's not easy. I was hoping to illustrate this article with some self-created buzzwords for leftwingers to use. The first one I came up with was "molehill mountaineer", a pejorative...

Origin

From Middle English wevel, from Old English wifel (“beetle”), from Proto-West Germanic *wibil, from Proto-Germanic *wibilaz, from Proto-Indo-European *webʰel-, from *(h₁)webʰ- (“to wave, to weave”), said to be from the woven appearance of a weevil’s larval case, + *-el-, *-l̥- (diminutive or attributive suffix); see also wave and weave. Compare Old Saxon *wivil (“beetle”); Middle Low German wevel; Old High German wibil, wipil (modern German Wiebel (“beetle; chafer”)); Lithuanian vãbalas (“beetle; weevil”); Old Norse vifill, as in tordyfill (“dung beetle, scarab”) (whence Dutch tortwevel; Icelandic tordýfill, Norwegian tordivel, Old English tordwifel, Swedish tordyvel); dialectal Russian ве́блица (véblica, “intestinal worm”).

Forms

weevils

Synonyms

snout beetle true weevil nunu

Derived

acorn weevil alfalfa weevil apple blossom weevil apple flea weevil apple weevil ash weevil banana root weevil banana weevil bean weevil biscuit weevil black vine weevil black weevil boll weevil broad-bean weevil broad-nosed weevil cabbage seedpod weevil cabbage seed weevil carrot weevil chestnut weevil clover leaf weevil clover-seed weevil clover weevil coffee-bean weevil corn weevil