June bug

or Junebug


noun
  1. Also called May beetle. any of several large, brown beetles of the genus Phyllophaga, of the scarab family, appearing in late spring and early summer.

  1. Chiefly Northern and North Midland U.S. a firefly.

Origin of June bug

1
First recorded in 1825–35

Words Nearby June bug

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use June bug in a sentence

  • The more they eat the sooner they come out into the bright world as a June-bug or some other kind of beetle.

    Little Busybodies | Jeanette Augustus Marks and Julia Moody
  • The June-bug has wing covers, too, but it never keeps its best wings tucked in.

    Little Busybodies | Jeanette Augustus Marks and Julia Moody
  • If he'd had sense enough to doctor a June-bug he'd have seen that nothing can cure the lad.

    Travelers Five Along Life's Highway | Annie Fellows Johnston
  • However, if you dont want to hear the story of the June-bug that worked the type-writer, I wont tell it.

    Mr. Munchausen  | John Kendrick Bangs
  • It always makes me think of a large June-bug dragged about by an accommodating crowd of fancy-colored flies!

    The Land of Thor | J. Ross Browne

British Dictionary definitions for June bug

June bug

noun
  1. any of various large brown North American scarabaeid beetles that are common in late spring and early summer, esp any of the genus Polyphylla: Also called: May beetle, May bug

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012