Beetle
['biːt(ə)l]
Definition
(noun.) insect having biting mouthparts and front wings modified to form horny covers overlying the membranous rear wings.
(verb.) beat with a beetle.
(verb.) fly or go in a manner resembling a beetle; 'He beetled up the staircase'; 'They beetled off home'.
(adj.) jutting or overhanging; 'beetle brows' .
Checked by Evita--From WordNet
Definition
(v. t.) A heavy mallet, used to drive wedges, beat pavements, etc.
(v. t.) A machine in which fabrics are subjected to a hammering process while passing over rollers, as in cotton mills; -- called also beetling machine.
(v. t.) To beat with a heavy mallet.
(v. t.) To finish by subjecting to a hammering process in a beetle or beetling machine; as, to beetle cotton goods.
(v. t.) Any insect of the order Coleoptera, having four wings, the outer pair being stiff cases for covering the others when they are folded up. See Coleoptera.
(v. i.) To extend over and beyond the base or support; to overhang; to jut.
Editor: Oswald
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. n. Protrude, project, jut, jut out, hang over.
Checker: Wade
Definition
n. a heavy wooden mallet used for driving wedges crushing or beating down paving-stones or the like: a wooden pestle-shaped utensil for mashing potatoes beating linen &c.—n. Bee′tle-head a heavy stupid fellow.—adj. Bee′tle-head′ed.
n. an order of insects technically known as Coleoptera usually with four wings the front pair forming hard and horny covers for those behind which alone are used in flight.—The Black Beetle or cockroach is not a true beetle.
Checked by Hugo
Unserious Contents or Definition
To dream of seeing them on your person, denotes poverty and small ills. To kill them is good.
Checked by Delores
Examples
- She was aware of Mademoiselle standing near, like a little French beetle, observant and calculating. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- Then the juice would fill up the hole the beetle had made, and the tree would go on growing as before. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- Her body was long and elegant, her face was crushed tiny like a beetle's, she had rows of round heavy collars, like a column of quoits, on her neck. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- He was pinned like a beetle on a card. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- The Ebers papyr us shows that the Egyptians knew of the development of the beetle from the egg, of the blow-fly from the larva, and of the frog from the tadpole. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- In the Ateuchus or sacred beetle of the Egyptians, they are totally deficient. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
- And the Wirt's black, beetle-like, broad-shouldered figure went on ignominiously in front, towards the noise. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- I thought of the black-beetles, the old boxes, the worm-eaten bureau. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- I can't let you off, you know, because I have some beetles to show you. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- I wish you had been poked into cells and black holes, and run over by rats and spiders and beetles. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- Why, I'd as soon have a spit put through me, and be stuck upon a card in a collection of beetles, as lead the life I have been leading here. Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
- And Gunto, summoned, says that Tana is lazy and will not bring him nuts and beetles, or scratch his back for him. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
- She knew them in crowds passing to and from their nests, like ants or beetles. Charles Dickens. Hard Times.
- He would have various grubs and insects, the large larv? of beetles and various caterpillars. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
Inputed by Bruno