beetle
Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary
Contents |
[edit] English
[edit] Etymology
Late Middle English bityl < Old English bitela “biting”.
[edit] Pronunciation
- Audio (US)help, file
- Rhymes: -iːtəl
[edit] Homophones
[edit] Noun
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Singular |
Plural |
beetle (plural beetles)
- Any of numerous species of insect in the order Coleoptera characterized by a pair of hard, shell-like, front wings which cover and protect a pair of rear wings when at rest.
- A type of mallet with a large wooden head.
- Nickname of two models of car made by Volkswagen.
[edit] Synonyms
- bug (U.S. colloquial)
[edit] Derived terms
from beetle
[edit] Translations
insect
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Volkswagen car
[edit] See also
[edit] Verb
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Infinitive |
Third person singular |
Simple past |
Past participle |
Present participle |
to beetle (third-person singular simple present beetles, present participle beetling, simple past and past participle beetled)
- To move away quickly, to scurry away.
- He beetled off on his vacation.
- 1983, Dorothy L. Sayers, Gaudy Night,[1] The Mountaineers Books, ISBN 978-0-380-01207-7, page 144:
- “ […] But he seems to have beetled off somewhere as usual. […] ”
- 2005, James D. Doss, The Witch’s Tongue, Macmillan, ISBN 978-0-312-99108-1, page 178:
- Her eyes still closed, his aunt smiled cruelly. “I know what you are dying to say, Bertie. Go ahead—take the cheap shot. I’ll squash you like the nasty little bug you are.”
- Thus chastened, the little man beetled away.
- To loom over.
- The heavy chimney beetled over the thatched roof.
- 1858, Dean of Pimlico, “A Story for the New Year”, in the Dublin University Magazine, reprinted in Littell’s Living Age, volume LVI (volume XX of the second series), January–March 1858, Littell, Son & Company, page 63:
- I was indeed gently affected, and shared his fears, remembering well the bulging walls of the old house, and the toppling mass of heavy chimney work which beetled over the roof, beneath which these poor doves had made their nest.
