Lexic.us

Definition of Beetle

1. Noun. Insect having biting mouthparts and front wings modified to form horny covers overlying the membranous rear wings.

2. Verb. Be suspended over or hang over. "This huge rock beetles over the edge of the town"

3. Adjective. Jutting or overhanging. "Beetle brows"

4. Noun. A tool resembling a hammer but with a large head (usually wooden); used to drive wedges or ram down paving stones or for crushing or beating or flattening or smoothing.

5. Verb. Fly or go in a manner resembling a beetle. "They beetled off home"

6. Verb. Beat with a beetle.

Definition of Beetle

1. n. A heavy mallet, used to drive wedges, beat pavements, etc.

2. v. t. To beat with a heavy mallet.

3. n. 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.

4. v. i. To extend over and beyond the base or support; to overhang; to jut.

Definition of Beetle

1. Noun. 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. ¹

2. Verb. To move away quickly, to scurry away. ¹

3. Verb. To loom over; to extend or jut. ¹

4. Noun. A type of mallet with a large wooden head. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Beetle

1. to jut out [v -TLED, -TLING, -TLES]

Medical Definition of Beetle

1. 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. Beetle mite, one of many species of mites, of the family Oribatidae, parasitic on beetles. Black beetle, the common large black cockroach (Blatta orientalis). Origin: OE. Bityl, bittle, AS. Btel, fr. Btan to bite. See Bite. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Beetle

beeswaxing beeswing beeswings beet beet-tongue beet armyworm beet blight beet green beet radish beet radishes

beet root beet sugar beeted beeth beeting beetle (current term) beetle-browed beetle-crusher beetle-headed beetle bank

beetle banks beetle brow beetle brows beetle off beetled beetledness beetlehead beetleheads beetlelike beetler

Literary usage of Beetle

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Nature by Norman Lockyer (1877)
"THE COLORADO beetle WE have already several times referred to this ... The Colorado beetle belongs to that subdivision of vegetable-feeding species known as ..."

2. The American Naturalist by American Society of Naturalists, Essex Institute (1871)
"But what insect preys on the Striped Squash beetle it appeared difficult to discover. The young appears quite safe from such enemies, living as it does ..."

3. The Living Age by Making of America Project, Eliakim Littell, Robert S. Littell (1861)
"imens, which the Dung-beetle thought was not politely said, ... said the Dung-beetle. Soon he fell into a slumber, and dreamt that the Emperor's horse had ..."

4. Report on the Injurious Insects and Other Animals Observed in the Midland by Walter Edward Collinge (1908)
"The female beetle deposits her eggs on the young pods, and, upon hatching out, ... In this it pupates, the beetle emerging in the following spring. ..."

5. Life-zone Indicators in California by Harvey Monroe Hall, Marcos Sastre, William Hamilton Gibson, Joseph Grinnell (1919)
"The beetle is nearly half an inch long, and is unsurpassed in the ... As with the Cassida, the collector must act with promptness in capturing the beetle, ..."

6. Critical and Miscellaneous Essays by Thomas Carlyle (1860)
"Pass on, poor beetle, venerable Art thou, were wonders ne'er so rife ; Thou hast what Bel to Tower of Babel Not gave : the chief' of wonders — LIFE. ..."

Other Resources: