ladybug

Related to ladybug: ladybird

ladybug, ladybug, fly away home

A children's rhyme said as a chant to shoo away the ladybug beetle. The full rhyme goes "ladybug, ladybug, fly away home, your house is on fire and your children will burn," an allusion to the practice of farmers burning their fields after the harvest. In British English, "ladybird" is typically used instead of "ladybug." A: "Look! A ladybug landed on your arm." B: "Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home!"
See also: away, fly, home
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

ladybug ladybug, fly away home

A chant to send a ladybug on its way. The ladybug (or ladybird) beetle is helpful to farmers by reducing the number of harmful larvae and insects on crops. In certain parts of the English-speaking world, farmers chanted right before they burned their fields after harvest, “Ladybug ladybug, fly away home / Your house is on fire, your children alone [or your children are gone].” Some people still recite the verse when a ladybug lands on them and before gently flicking the insect off them, because swatting a ladybug is considered very bad luck.
See also: away, fly, home, ladybug
Endangered Phrases by Steven D. Price
See also:
  • are we away
  • Are we away?
  • away
  • draw away
  • do away with
  • do away with (someone, something, or oneself)
  • draw away from (someone or something)
  • dwindle away
  • drift away
  • a stone's throw away
References in periodicals archive
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Natural rhythms: The key phrase is "I felt a ladybug in my hair." Use phrasing that is short, simple, and natural to enhance students' understanding and make it easier to match the words to a rhythm.
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Paint the ladybugs with red paint and leave them on the waxed paper to dry.
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Open the window and begin!
The move will help LadyBug enter the alternative energy vehicle market and also positions it to capitalise on the federal government's plan to transition a part of its gasoline mini-utility vehicles to electric ones.
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However, the ladybug lead in Ovo seems perfectly suited for the large, bubbly, charismatic Matlock.
The sapphistru of Cirque du Soleil
LadyBug Resource Group (OTCBB:LBRG), Kirkland, Wash., has announced that its subsidiary, New Solar Electricity Corporation, is developing a novel solar concentrator called "Solar Tracer," which will use concentrating solar power technology to capture energy from the sun and transfer it in the form of heat to run steam turbine generators.
SOLAR TRACER TO USE CONCENTRATING SOLAR THERMAL POWER
Until the mid-1980s, North America's native nine-spotted ladybug, Coccinella novemnotata, ranged across America and through southern Canada aiding gardens and farmers.
The great ladybug mystery
A ladybug invites the reader to stand up, dance, pretend there is a tiny bug on your nose, in your mouth, on your shirt!
Thomas, Jan: Can You Make a Scary Face