greenbottle fly
- noun
- /ˈɡriːnˌbɒtəl flaɪ/
:
mosca de botella verde
- The greenbottle fly is often attracted to decaying meat and garbage.
Examples
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After leaving the window open, a greenbottle fly buzzed noisily around the kitchen.
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Look out! A greenbottle fly just landed on your sandwich!
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A metallic sheen helped the scientist identify the insect as a greenbottle fly.
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The greenbottle fly landed on the windowsill.
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A greenbottle fly with its shiny green body was buzzing around the abandoned fruit basket.
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The greenbottle fly is commonly found near rotting garbage in warm weather.
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While gardening, I noticed a greenbottle fly resting on the petals of a flower.
Synonyms
4
7.8
A large shiny fly that lays eggs in dead animals, dung, or wounds
1
7.2
A large fly with a shiny blue-green body that lays eggs on dead animals and in wounds
1
6.8
A large metallic blue fly that buzzes loudly near garbage or rotten food
1
9.9
Shiny green flies found on decaying animal or plant matter whose maggots can clean wounds
A common fly with a shiny green body often found near rubbish
A common blue blowfly that makes a loud buzzing sound and lives near dead animals or trash
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is transparently compositional: 'greenbottle' names a metallic-green blowfly and 'fly' is the insect class, so the phrase denotes that specific kind of fly. This straightforward color/type + animal pattern is predictable and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will understand the meaning.
Etymology
The noun greenbottle fly comes from the insect's shiny, bright green body that looks like a small glass bottle. So the name now refers to the common blowfly you see around garbage and rotten meat.