fruit fly

noun

: any of various small dipteran flies (such as a drosophila) whose larvae feed on fruit or decaying vegetable matter

Examples of fruit fly in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
There were 10 to 15 fruit flies in the bar. Sacbee.com, 31 Oct. 2025 Grab them from the bottom, and a cloud of fruit flies and stink rises from the carcass turning to mush in your hands. Brandee Gruener, Southern Living, 31 Oct. 2025 To test the effect of static charge on airborne nematodes, Ortega-Jiménez tethered living fruit flies to a live copper wire and adjusted the voltage between 100 and 700 volts, comparable to what insects would generate in the wild. Cody Cottier, Scientific American, 23 Oct. 2025 Each organoid, roughly the size of a fruit fly’s brain, contains about 10,000 neurons, a minuscule fraction of the 100 billion in a human brain. Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 20 Oct. 2025 See All Example Sentences for fruit fly

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1753, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of fruit fly was circa 1753

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Fruit fly.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fruit%20fly. Accessed 6 Nov. 2025.

Kids Definition

fruit fly

noun
: any of various small two-winged flies whose larvae feed on fruit or decaying vegetable matter

Medical Definition

fruit fly

noun
: any of various small dipteran flies (as a drosophila) whose larvae feed on fruit or decaying vegetable matter

More from Merriam-Webster on fruit fly

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