Definition

A weevil is any of a superfamily (Curculionoidea) of beetles which have the head prolonged into a more or less distinct snout and which include many that are injurious especially as larvae to nuts, fruit, and grain or to living plants; especially : any of a family (Curculionidae) having a well-developed snout curved downward with the jaws at the tip and clubbed usually elbowed antennae.

Etymology. O.E. wifel "small beetle," from P.Gmc. *webilaz (cf. O.S. wibil, O.H.G. wibil, Ger. Wiebel "beetle, chafer," O.N. tordyfill "dung beetle"), cognate with Lith. vabalas "beetle," from PIE base *webh- "to weave," also "to move quickly". The sense gradually narrowed to a particular kind of beetle that, in larval or adult stages, bores into plants, often destroying them.