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shoofly

shoofly

9.3
An object hung to keep flies away or a sweet pie made with molasses
  • noun
  • /ˈʃuːflaɪ/
  • US
translation icon : pastel de melaza
  • Old-fashioned diners sometimes serve shoofly as a dessert specialty.

Examples

  • I made a delicious shoofly pie for dessert last night.

  • During summer, we often set up a shoofly at our outdoor gatherings.

  • The farmer hung a shoofly above the table to keep insects away during meals.

  • She baked a traditional shoofly for the family gathering, and everyone loved its sweet flavor.

  • She baked a delicious shoofly pie that everyone enjoyed at the picnic.

  • To keep the shoofly away from the food, we set up several traps around the table.

  • The farm's specialty is a traditional shoofly pie, famous for its rich molasses flavor.

Synonyms

mothball
vsshoofly
16 5.2

A small ball you put with stored clothes to keep moths away

is used to keep flies away in general situations rather than in storage
smudge
vsshoofly
2 7.1

A smoky outdoor fire used to keep insects away

is a general object used to keep flies away rather than burning smoke
shoofly pie
vsshoofly
  • US
9.6

A sweet open pie that uses molasses and a crumb topping

also names an object used to keep flies away in a different sense
tanglefoot
vsshoofly
  • US
9.9

A sticky substance put on plants to trap insects or a cheap strong alcohol

keeps flies away by repelling them rather than capturing them on surfaces

Surface Forms

shoofly singular
shooflies plural

Morphology

shoofly = shoo + fly (semi-transparent) = shoo + fly

The compound directly describes a device meant to 'shoo' flies (transparent), but the pastry sense (shoofly pie) is historical/idiomatic and is not directly predictable from the components.

Etymology

Shoofly for a device to keep flies away or for the sweet pie comes from shoo + fly, where 'shoo' is 'go away' and 'fly' is the insect. The pie, made with sticky molasses, often attracted flies, so people called it a shoofly, and a tool to keep bugs off meals was also a literal 'shoo-fly'.