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Firefly   Listen
noun
Firefly  n.  (pl. fireflies)  (Zool.) Any luminous winged insect, esp. luminous beetles of the family Lampyridae. Note: The common American species belong to the genera Photinus (especially Photinus pyralis) and Photuris, in which both sexes are winged. The name is also applied to luminous species of Elateridae. See Fire beetle.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Firefly" Quotes from Famous Books



... a songster gay, Would soothe their souls, with multifarious song, Singing his farewell-hymns to dying Day, As fade his smiles the darkening glades along; And when the frowns of night more thickly throng, The amorous firefly led them at that hour, O'er wooded hills, and marshes deep and long, To their sweet rest, which sank, with grateful power, Along their wearied nerves, ...
— Lays of Ancient Virginia, and Other Poems • James Avis Bartley

... your Majesty," said Beeswing with Ripple and Firefly, "will order our regiment—the seventh—to encamp under the sedges on the shore, half to keep watch, while the other half sleep in the swaying branches ...
— The Fairy Nightcaps • Frances Elizabeth Barrow

... that season the Firefly, and many misinterpreted her illy suppressed excitement and the scrutiny of those lambent eyes sending out their flame signals in search of answering lights. Even her secretary did not know that the dark shadows which ...
— Romance of Roman Villas - (The Renaissance) • Elizabeth W. (Elizbeth Williams) Champney

... aurora borealis; southern lights, aurora australis. lightning; chain lightning, fork lightning, sheet lightning, summer lightning; ball lightning, kugelblitz [G.]; [chemical substances giving off light without burning] phosphorus, yellow phosphorus; scintillator, phosphor; firefly luminescence. ignis fatuus [Lat.]; Jack o'lantern, Friar's lantern; will-o'-the- wisp, firedrake^, Fata Morgana [Lat.]; Saint Elmo's fire. [luminous insects] glowworm, firefly, June bug, lightning bug. [luminous fish] anglerfish. [Artificial light] gas; gas light, lime light, lantern, lanthorn^; ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget

... plain to be seen why they did not invite us," said one old Firefly. "They did not need us ...
— Sandman's Goodnight Stories • Abbie Phillips Walker

... dark monotony of an earth robbed of its winter clothing a cluster of moving figures stood out in faint relief, and presently a light flashed out like the infinitesimal blaze of a firefly in the night. It passed, and then it came again. Again it passed. And again it came. This time it lived and grew. A fire had lit, and the group of figures were crouching over it as though to protect it against the dark immensity of ...
— The Heart of Unaga • Ridgwell Cullum

... speeches. When Partha will, with hundreds of arrows, quell thy pride, then wilt thou behold the difference between thyself and Dhananjaya. Those two best of persons are celebrated among the gods, the Asuras and human beings. Thou that art a firefly, do not, from folly, think disrespectfully of those two resplendent luminaries. Like the Sun and moon, Keshava and Arjuna are celebrated for their resplendence. Thou, however, art like a fire-fly among ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 3 - Books 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 • Unknown

... little to promise, and I may not need your friendship for very long,' she replied, plucking a glittering firefly from her fan and laying it on his sleeve with her sweet light laugh. 'Like a firefly I shall dance out my short night, and die ...
— A Modern Mercenary • Kate Prichard and Hesketh Vernon Hesketh-Prichard

... hand and she sat so motionless that the place seemed deserted, save for an errant firefly that vainly palpitated in the gloom. The glow that had flamed beneath Nicholas's kiss still lingered in her face, and she was conscious of a faint, almost hysterical impulse to weep. The fever in her veins had given place ...
— The Voice of the People • Ellen Glasgow

... and the Firefly" (JAFL 20 : 314) shows the firefly making use of the same ruse the dragon-flies employ to get the monkeys to slay one another. The first part of this variant is connected with our No. 60. The "killing fly on ...
— Filipino Popular Tales • Dean S. Fansler

... rely on their ears alone hereafter, for they could not see through this darkness. McKay was visible enough to his own party, but not to the enemy. The blond man in the hammock watched the somber figure of his comrade, followed the flight of a big firefly whose light floated near, thought of the two bushmen out in the dark, and looked again at ...
— The Pathless Trail • Arthur O. (Arthur Olney) Friel

... petal, now the white; Nor waves the cypress in the palace walk; Nor winks the gold fin in the porphyry font: The firefly wakens: waken ...
— Book of English Verse • Bulchevy

... wood, the fugitives emerged, after some hard riding, upon the bare hillside. Below them, and some distance ahead, could be seen the twinkling lights of the village Jack had noticed the night before, while on their right hands gleamed the firefly-like lights of ...
— The Border Boys Across the Frontier • Fremont B. Deering

... humor, as gay as the firefly's light, Played round every subject, and shone as it played;— Whose wit, in the combat, as gentle as bright, Ne'er carried a heart-stain away on its blade;— Whose eloquence—brightening whatever it tried, Whether reason or fancy, the ...
— The World's Best Poetry — Volume 10 • Various

... watch, always in the one quarter, where the slight noise indicated the presence of the creeping beast, Max saw something that riveted his attention immediately. At first he thought it was a glowworm, or possibly a firefly that had not yet arisen from the lush grass in which it lay ...
— The Strange Cabin on Catamount Island • Lawrence J. Leslie

... indisposition,—to assure us that his ill health more than once threatened the mighty task he had in hand. These, to be sure, are most important revelations. But Khalid here misses his cue. Inspiration does not seem to come to him in firefly-fashion. ...
— The Book of Khalid • Ameen Rihani

... sickness, and death have all to be accounted for. They know nothing of malaria, filth, or contagion. Hence they hold that an enemy causes these things, and friends have to see that due punishment is made. The large night firefly helps to point in the direction of that enemy, or the spirits of departed ones are called in through spiritists' influence to come and assist, and the medium pronouncing a neighbouring tribe guilty, the time is near when that tribe will be visited and cruel deeds done. ...
— Adventures in New Guinea • James Chalmers

... "finish" up town. Faring back, then, I come to the dock-head at sunset, and it is my hour. Darkness is rushing down upon the shipping as I watch. In the distance hill piled on hill, blue dome upon blue dome, spangled with myriad firefly lights, backed by the smoky red of winter sunset; and here the shipping, ghostly now in the darkness, exquisitely beautiful in the silence. From out at sea comes a faint "ah-oo-oo-oo"—one more toiler coming in to rest. And it ...
— An Ocean Tramp • William McFee

... long way off, her lantern bobbing along like a firefly, and walked faster. Impatience brought a cold sweat out upon his forehead and then he needs must call her name before she ...
— Kenny • Leona Dalrymple

... the Firefly, that leaves to-morrow for the port of —, in my native State, and from there to Melrose, ...
— Leah Mordecai • Mrs. Belle Kendrick Abbott

... Crocodile, Watersprite, Thetis, Dolphin, Wizard, Escape, and Dragon-all vessels with rising floors and round bilges, and the coefficient of performance was found to be 1430. The fourth set of experiments was made in 1834, upon the vessels Magnet, Dart, Eclipse, Flamer, Firefly, Ferret, and Monarch, when the coefficient of performance was found to be 1580. The fifth set of experiments was made upon the Red Rover, City of Canterbury, Herne, Queen, and Prince of Wales, and in the case of those vessels the coefficient rose to 2550. The velocity of any ...
— A Catechism of the Steam Engine • John Bourne

... and a dim light showed on a slope gentler than the rest, leading down to the lake. It was a spark so faint and vague that it might have passed to the ordinary eye as a firefly, but rangers and Mohawks knew well that it came from some portion of St. Luc's camp and that the enemy was close at hand. Then the band stopped and the three leaders talked together again ...
— The Rulers of the Lakes - A Story of George and Champlain • Joseph A. Altsheler

... Ayr, across Prestwick Bay; and these rocks jutting out into the sea, the Heads of Ayr. Do you see that house with the flagstaff, at the top of the Links? It is Mr. Fordyce's house, The Anchorage, where I lived all summer. It is splendid here to-day. Stand still, Firefly, you impatient animal; we are ...
— The Guinea Stamp - A Tale of Modern Glasgow • Annie S. Swan

... woodland enchanted! The great August noonlight! Through myriad rifts slanted, Leaf and bole thickly sprinkles With flickering gold; There, in warm August gloaming, With quick, silent brightenings, 50 From meadow-lands roaming, The firefly twinkles His fitful heat-lightnings; There the magical moonlight With meek, saintly glory Steeps summit and wold; There whippoorwills plain in the solitudes hoary With lone cries that wander Now hither, now yonder, Like souls doomed of old ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell • James Lowell

... fear died and was buried the day you rode Alec's horse, Victor. A good canter on Firefly over the Blue Bonnet country will make you wonder that such a ...
— Blue Bonnet's Ranch Party • C. E. Jacobs



Words linked to "Firefly" :   elater, family Lampyridae, Lampyridae, Pyrophorus, elaterid, elaterid beetle, Pyrophorus noctiluca, glowworm, beetle, fire beetle, genus Pyrophorus, lightning bug



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