katydid
nounUS /ˈkeɪtiˌdɪd/
Etymology Onomatopoeic, from the sound a common true katydid (Pterophylla camellifolia) makes by stridulating. * katydid song: (file)
1
US A cricket of the family Tettigoniidae
- I have noticed all these, and some at a much earlier date than the first faint lisping of a timid katydid; and all such sights and sounds are similarly suggestive—the summer is drawing to its close.1889, Charles Conrad Abbott, Days Out of Doors, New York: D. Appleton and Company, page 194:
- In the night the katydids and crickets screeched in waves, soft then loud, back and forth.2019, Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys, Fleet, page 52:
- Derived terms
- angular-winged katydid, false katydid, fork-tailed bush katydid, juniper bush katydid, leaf katydid, round-headed katydid