BEETLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does beetle mean? 

• BEETLE (noun)
  The noun BEETLE has 2 senses:

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

2. 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

  Familiarity information: BEETLE used as a noun is rare.

• BEETLE (adjective)
  The adjective BEETLE has 1 sense:

1. jutting or overhanging

  Familiarity information: BEETLE used as an adjective is very rare.

• BEETLE (verb)
  The verb BEETLE has 3 senses:

1. be suspended over or hang over

2. fly or go in a manner resembling a beetle

3. beat with a beetle

  Familiarity information: BEETLE used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BEETLE (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"):

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)

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)

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

beetle; mallet

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)

• BEETLE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Jutting or overhanging

Synonyms:

beetle; beetling

Context example:

beetle brows

Similar:

protrusive (thrusting outward)

• BEETLE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they beetle    ... he / she / it beetles   
Past simple: beetled   
Past participle: beetled   
-ing form: beetling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Be suspended over or hang over

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

beetle; overhang

Context example:

This huge rock beetles over the edge of the town

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

hang (be suspended or hanging)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Fly or go in a manner resembling a beetle

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Context example:

They beetled off home

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:

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)

 Context examples 

The beetling head of the cliff projected over the cane-brake.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Once, indeed, the Tin Woodman stepped upon a beetle that was crawling along the road, and killed the poor little thing.

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

Bruchid beetles were the primary challenge to producing viable seedlings.

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

Results of the study demonstrated for the first time the economic benefit of using natural predators such as ladybird beetles as a form of pest control.

(Study estimates true value of ladybird as biocontrol, SciDev.Net)

A beetle in the family Lampyridae noted for its bioluminescence.

(Lampyridae, NCI Thesaurus)

“My God!” cried our client, “what a blind beetle I have been!”

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

He was pinned like a beetle on a card.

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

Dim memories he had of beetling cliffs, of a group of huts with wondering faces at the doors, of foaming, clattering water, and of a bristle of mountain beeches.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A taxonomic class of arthropods that includes praying mantises, dragonflies, grasshoppers, true bugs, flies, bees, wasps, ants, butterflies, moths, and beetles.

(Insect, NCI Thesaurus)

Among the fallen rocks the breakers spouted and bellowed; loud reverberations, heavy sprays flying and falling, succeeded one another from second to second; and I saw myself, if I ventured nearer, dashed to death upon the rough shore or spending my strength in vain to scale the beetling crags.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)