Definition of "cockchafer" [cock•chaf•er]

• Any of various European beetles of the family Scarabaeidae, especially Melolontha melolontha, which is destructive to plants. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The common beetle called cockchafer is here known only as the _oak-web_, and a smaller beetle as _fern-web_."
• "A cockchafer came droning over the hedge and past us."
• "M. de Bargeton pervaded the house like a cockchafer; it never entered his head that his wife could wish to be alone with Lucien."