Flyspeck
noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Housefly excrement, visible as a minuscule black dot.
"The wall of the kitchen above the fruitbowl was dotted with flyspeck."
- 2 a tiny dark speck made by the excrement of a fly wordnet
- 3 Anything tiny or insignificant. broadly
"From the foothills below, Jean, Jan, and James were mere flyspecks, easily lost among the straggly pines that formed the treeline."
- 1 To bespeckle with tiny spatters of color.
"To flyspeck, you need an old toothbrush, the paint color of your choice, glazing medium, a palette knife, and a mixing surface such as a palette or plastic container."
- 2 To inspect in minute detail to ensure that something contains no flaws; nitpick.
"Your criticism will seem like flyspecking. They'll be mad at you for pointing out that there's more crime than they like to think, and especially mad that you're saying their own group—privileged middle-aged white males—are just as bad as young African-American inner-city toughs, walking the streets in packs of four and looking mean."
- 1 very small wordnet
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"The wall of the kitchen above the fruitbowl was dotted with flyspeck."
Etymology
From fly + speck.
Related phrases
More for "flyspeck"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.