▪ I. ˈhorse-fly1
[f. fly n.1 2.]
One of various dipterous insects troublesome to horses, as the horse-tick (family Hippoboscidæ), the breeze or gadfly (Tabanidæ), the bot-fly (Œstridæ).
| 1382 Wyclif Josh. xxiv. 12, I sente before ȝou hors fleeȝis [Vulg. crabrones]. 1556 Withals Dict. (1568) 7 a/1 A horse flye, cantholarethrus. 1578 Lyte Dodoens ii. lvi. 221 The third [Serapias Orchis] hath small floures like to a kinde of Horseflies. 1645 Milton Colast. (1851) 377 Infested, som⁓times at his face, with dorrs and horsflies. 1822 Loudon Encycl. Gard. ii. iv. (L), The horse-flies cause much distress to horses in the vicinity of the New Forest. 1861 Hulme tr. Moquin-Tandon ii. iv. i. 227 The Horse Fly (Hippobosca Equina)..of a brown colour mottled with yellow and white. |
b. attrib. horse-fly-weed, a North American leguminous plant, Baptisia tinctoria, called also wild indigo.
| 1884 in Miller Plant-n. |
▪ II. † ˈhorse-ˈfly2 Obs.
[f. fly n.2 3 b.]
A covered carriage drawn by a horse. (Subsequently simply fly.)
| 1826 Miss Mitford Village Ser. ii. (1863) 355 A much more dignified conveyance..than any of the race of flies, whether horse-fly or man-fly. 1830 T. Hook Maxwell II. ii. 53 [To] go and get a fly..not to bring a horse-fly. |