boll weevil
1
9.9
- noun
- /ˈbɔl ˈwiːvəl/
- Specialized
:
picudo del algodón
- In Mississippi, it was most frequently used in cottonfields for controlling the boll weevil.
- boll weevil eradication
- boll weevil control program
- boll weevil research
Examples
-
The boll weevil is a pest that significantly damages cotton crops.
-
An important lesson from this boll weevil control program
Academic text (1995) -
For thousands of years, boll weevils fed on wild tropical cotton in Central and South America.
Academic text (1994) -
Over the years, estimates of yield losses and control costs due to the boll weevil total more than $22 billion.
Academic text (2003) -
Less than 10 years later, the boll weevil was essentially wiped out in North and South Carolina.
Academic text (1995) -
For more than 100 years, boll weevils wreaked havoc on the U.S. cotton industry.
Academic text (2003) -
Last summer, this approach killed about 88 percent of boll weevils on a 16-acre Weslaco research site.
Academic text (1994) -
A classic example of border-crossing pests is the boll weevil, estimated to cost the U.S. cotton industry $300 million annually.
Academic text (1995) -
Bards both black and white created songs that ruefully noted the boll weevil's destructiveness and creepy ubiquity.
Academic text (2009) -
Farmers worked hard to reduce the impact of the boll weevil on their fields.
Synonyms
A small grey beetle that lays eggs in cotton bolls and damages cotton crops
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is transparently compositional: 'boll' (cotton seed capsule) + 'weevil' (a beetle) directly yields 'a weevil associated with/infesting cotton bolls.' This literal naming pattern is common and predictable, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents should be able to infer the meaning.
Etymology
Boll weevil comes from the small insect that lives in the cotton plant's boll and is a kind of beetle called a weevil. When these bugs get into 'cotton bolls' they eat the seeds and can 'destroy' the crop, so the name refers to the pest that can ruin cotton fields.