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beetle

Pronunciation: /ˈbiːtəl/

The English word “beetle” has 9 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. 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.
  2. A game of chance in which players attempt to complete a drawing of a beetle, different dice rolls allowing them to add the various body parts.
  3. A type of mallet with a large wooden head, used to drive wedges, beat pavements, etc.
  4. A machine in which fabrics are subjected to a hammering process while passing over rollers, as in cotton mills; a beetling machine.

verb

  1. To move (away) quickly, to scurry away.
  2. To loom over; to extend or jut (above).
  3. To beat with a heavy mallet.
  4. To finish by subjecting to a hammering process in a beetle or beetling machine.

adjective

  1. Protruding, jutting, overhanging.

Etymology

From Middle English bitle, bityl, bytylle, from Old English bitula, bitela, bītel (“beetle”), from Proto-West Germanic *bitilō, *bītil, from Proto-Germanic *bitilô, *bītilaz (“that which tends to bite, biter, beetle”), equivalent to bite + -le. Cognate with Old High German bicco (“beetle”), Danish bille (“beetle”), Icelandic bitil, bitul (“a bite, bit”), Faroese bitil (“small piece, bittock”).

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.