boll weevil

plural boll weevils

1. A beetle (Anthonomus grandis) measuring an average length of six millimeters (¼ inch), which feeds on cotton buds and flowers, native to Central America.

   “[…]What do you reckon the boll-weevils’ll eat if you dont^([sic]) get those cultivators in shape to raise them a crop?” I says, “sage grass?”

   1929, William Faulkner, “The Sound and the Fury”, in The Sound and the Fury & As I Lay Dying, New York, N.Y.: The Modern Library, published 1946, →OCLC, page 248

2. USdatedinformalgovernmentA conservative Southern Democrat.

   As the veteran columnist John Chamberlain put it back in 1982, the ATARI Democrats ‘include many of the Southern “boll weevil” contingent that has supported Reagan on taxes, [and]^([sic]) is for using government to channel investment money to the newer “high tech” industries.

   2019, Richard Carr, quoting John Chamberlain, March of the Moderates […] , Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN