cuckoo-spit

[ koo-koo-spit, kook-oo- ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

Also called frog spit. a frothy secretion found on plants, exuded by the young of certain insects, as the froghoppers, and serving as a protective covering.
an insect that produces this secretion.

cuckoo spit

a white frothy mass on the stems and leaves of many plants, produced by froghopper larvae ( cuckoo spit insects ) which feed on the plant juices Also calledfrog spit

1350–1400; Middle English cokkowespitle cuckoopint; so called from the spitlike secretion found on the plant and thought to be left by the bird

Cuckoo spit; the violet: merely the translation of the Irish name, sail-chuach, spittle of cuckoos.

Cuckoo spit: liquid in the form of bubbles produced by members of the family Cercopidae and which often conceals the producer.

They call it cuckoo-spit, from its plentiful appearance about the arrival of that bird.

There is no commoner sight in the early summer than the cuckoo-spit on the grasses and herbage by the wayside.

April 19, 2024tortuous

[tawr-choo-uhs ]

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