Library / English Dictionary

BEETLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("beetle" is a kind of...):

insect (small air-breathing arthropod)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "beetle"):

rove beetle (active beetle typically having predatory or scavenging habits)

bark beetle (small beetle that bores tunnels in the bark and wood of trees; related to weevils)

blister beetle; meloid (beetle that produces a secretion that blisters the skin)

weevil (any of several families of mostly small beetles that feed on plants and plant products; especially snout beetles and seed beetles)

deathwatch; deathwatch beetle; Xestobium rufovillosum (bores through wood making a ticking sound popularly thought to presage death)

whirligig beetle (aquatic beetle that circles rapidly on the water surface)

water beetle (any of numerous aquatic beetles usually having a smooth oval body and flattened hind legs for swimming)

elater; elaterid; elaterid beetle (any of various widely distributed beetles)

lamellicorn beetle (beetle having antennae with hard platelike terminal segments)

clerid; clerid beetle (predacious on other insects; usually brightly colored or metallic)

carpet beetle; carpet bug (small beetle whose larvae are household pests feeding on woolen fabrics)

chrysomelid; leaf beetle (brightly colored beetle that feeds on plant leaves; larvae infest roots and stems)

long-horned beetle; longicorn; longicorn beetle (long-bodied beetle having very long antennae)

firefly; lightning bug (nocturnal beetle common in warm regions having luminescent abdominal organs)

carabid beetle; ground beetle (predacious shining black or metallic terrestrial beetle that destroys many injurious insects)

lady beetle; ladybeetle; ladybird; ladybird beetle; ladybug (small round bright-colored and spotted beetle that usually feeds on aphids and other insect pests)

tiger beetle (active usually bright-colored beetle that preys on other insects)

Anoplophora glabripennis; Asian longhorned beetle (a beetle from China that has been found in the United States and is a threat to hardwood trees; lives inside the tree; no natural predators in the United States)

Holonyms ("beetle" is a member of...):

Coleoptera; order Coleoptera (beetles)

Sense 2

Meaning:

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

Synonyms:

beetle; mallet

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("beetle" is a kind of...):

hammer (a hand tool with a heavy rigid head and a handle; used to deliver an impulsive force by striking)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "beetle"):

carpenter's mallet (a short-handled mallet with a wooden head used to strike a chisel or wedge)

gavel (a small mallet used by a presiding officer or a judge)

Derivation:

beetle (beat with a beetle)

 II. (adjective) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Jutting or overhanging

Example:

beetle brows

Synonyms:

beetle; beetling

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

protrusive (thrusting outward)

 III. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Beat with a beetle

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "beetle" is one way to...):

beat (hit repeatedly)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

beetle (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)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Fly or go in a manner resembling a beetle

Example:

They beetled off home

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "beetle" is one way to...):

go; locomote; move; travel (change location; move, travel, or proceed, also metaphorically)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Sense 3

Meaning:

Be suspended over or hang over

Example:

This huge rock beetles over the edge of the town

Synonyms:

beetle; overhang

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "beetle" is one way to...):

hang (be suspended or hanging)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Credits

 Context examples: 

Thank you, sir, said Poole, with a note of something like triumph in his voice; and taking up his candle, he led Mr. Utterson back across the yard and into the great kitchen, where the fire was out and the beetles were leaping on the floor.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Egyptian archaeologists have discovered a rare collection of mummified scarab beetles, as well as an apparently pristine Fifth Dynasty tomb they plan to open in the coming weeks in the Saqqara necropolis, 30 km (19mi) south of Cairo.

(Egyptian Archaeologists Uncover One-Of-A-Kind Tomb South of Cairo, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

I could not see any cause for it, for the howling of the wolves had ceased altogether; but just then the moon, sailing through the black clouds, appeared behind the jagged crest of a beetling, pine-clad rock, and by its light I saw around us a ring of wolves, with white teeth and lolling red tongues, with long, sinewy limbs and shaggy hair.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The beetles, which are known to infest all kinds of seeds and beans, spoiled most of the seeds left exposed on the forest floor.

(Thai Elephants Help Spread Jungle Fruit's Seeds, Sadie Witkowski/VOA)

Under the conditions of their escape it was naturally impossible to bring a large amount of baggage, but they had rescued Professor Summerlee's collections of butterflies and beetles, containing many new species.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

What a blind beetle I have been, not to draw my conclusion.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Long did Alleyne bear the scene in mind—the knot of knights in their dull leaden-hued armor, the ruddy visage of Sir Oliver, the craggy features of the Scottish earl, the shining scalp of Sir Nigel, with the dense ring of hard, bearded faces and the long brown heads of the horses, all topped and circled by the beetling cliffs.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The tomb in the day-time, and when wreathed with fresh flowers, had looked grim and gruesome enough; but now, some days afterwards, when the flowers hung lank and dead, their whites turning to rust and their greens to browns; when the spider and the beetle had resumed their accustomed dominance; when time-discoloured stone, and dust-encrusted mortar, and rusty, dank iron, and tarnished brass, and clouded silver-plating gave back the feeble glimmer of a candle, the effect was more miserable and sordid than could have been imagined.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I can see now how she was plotting and scheming and poisoning my wife’s mind against me, but I was such a blind beetle that I could not understand it at the time.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"This will serve me a lesson," said he, "to look where I step. For if I should kill another bug or beetle I should surely cry again, and crying rusts my jaws so that I cannot speak."

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)