pea bug

English

Alternative forms

  • pea-bug, peabug

Noun

pea bug (plural pea bugs)

  1. (colloquial) Any of several small beetles of the genus Bruchus which destroy pea plants; a pea weevil. [from 18th c.]
  2. (colloquial) A woodlouse (Oniscidea spp.). [from 19th c.]
    • 1923, D. H. Lawrence, Fantasia of the Unconscious:
      Morning, with rain in the sky, and the forest subtly brooding, and me feeling no bigger than a pea-bug between the roots of my fir.