boll weevil

noun

: a usually grayish or brown weevil (Anthonomus grandis grandis) that feeds on the squares and bolls of the cotton plant

Examples of boll weevil in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Rice is often grown in fields formerly used for cotton, whose production involved spraying with cacodylic acid (the dimethyl arsenic compound) to kill boll weevil pests, and then with arsenic acid to kill and desiccate the plant prior to mechanical harvesting. —Julian Tyson, Discover Magazine, 7 May 2015

For example, the boll weevil was once the main worldwide threat to cotton. —Andrew Moseman, Discover Magazine, 14 May 2010

In the Lone Star State, boll weevil traps with pheromones are set up around fields and along roadsides. —Mary Beth Gahan, Washington Post, 7 Oct. 2022

In memoriam Enterprise, Alabama, has been enterprising in honoring a pest that nearly destroyed the town's economy a century ago: the boll weevil. —CBS News, 15 Sep. 2022

By the 1970s, one-third of all pesticides applied in the United States were used to fight the boll weevil, according to the USDA. —Mary Beth Gahan, Washington Post, 7 Oct. 2022

But more than a century ago, a small creature – the boll weevil – nearly destroyed this town. —CBS News, 18 Sep. 2022

A century ago, cotton farmers in Enterprise, Ala., faced disaster when their crops were wiped out by an invasive species, the boll weevil. —CBS News, 15 Sep. 2022

Enterprise has a long history of celebrating the boll weevil. —Leada Gore | [e-mail], al, 4 Apr. 2022

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Word History

First Known Use

1879, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

boll weevil

noun

: a gray or brown weevil whose larva lives in and feeds on the buds and bolls of the cotton plant