BEETLE

Beetle

The Coleoptera order of insects is commonly called beetles. The word "coleoptera" is from the Greek, koleos, meaning "sheath"; and, pteron, meaning "wing", thus "sheathed wing", because most beetles have two pairs of wings, the front pair, the "elytra", being hardened and thickened into a sheath-like, or shell-like, protection for the rear pair, and for the rear part of the beetle's body. The superficial consistency of most beetles' morphology, in particular their possession of elytra, has long suggested that the Coleoptera are monophyletic, but growing evidence indicates this is ...

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beetle

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.

Noun (etymology 2)

  1. A type of mallet with a large wooden head, used to drive wedges, beat pavements, etc.
  2. 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.
    He beetled off on his vacation.

Verb (etymology 2)

  1. To loom over; to extend or jut.
    The heavy chimney beetled over the thatched roof.

Verb (etymology 3)

  1. To beat with a heavy mallet.
  2. To finish by subjecting to a hammering process in a beetle or beetling machine.
    to beetle cotton goods

Adjective

  1. Protruding, jutting, overhanging. (As in beetle brows.)


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: beetle
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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