ˈsmother-fly dial.
[f. smother v.]
A species of aphis.
| 1781 G. White Selborne xcvii, The people..were surprised by a shower of aphides, or smother-flies, which fell in these parts. 1796 W. H. Marshall Rur. Econ. Midl. (ed. 2) II. 386 The very ‘Black bug’ ‘Negro’—here provincially ‘Smother fly’—with which beans are frequently infested. 1851 B'ham & Midl. Gardeners' Mag. Dec. 239 The Plum stocks in particular being infested with smother-fly. |