▪ I. beetle, n.1
(ˈbiːt(ə)l)
Forms: 1 b{iacu}etel, b{iacu}tel, b{yacu}tel, 3 bettle, 4 bytylle, 4–6 betel, 5 betylle, bittill, 5–6 betell(e, 6 betill, -yll, betle, beetel(le, 7 boytle, 8–9 dial. beatle, bittle, 6– beetle.
[OE. b{iacu}etel, in Anglian *bétel, ‘beating implement,’ :—OTeut. *bautilo-z, f. bautan, in OE. béatan, ‘to beat’ + *-il, -el, -l, -le, suffix denoting an instrument; cogn. w. MHG. bôzel cudgel, LG. betel, bötel ‘a mall’ (Bremisches Wb. I. 126). The variant forms in i and e in middle and mod.Eng. are due to the late WSax. b{iacu}tel, b{yacu}tel, and Anglian bétel respectively; of the latter the mod. beetle is the regular representative. Those like bittle show the ordinary shortening of a long vowel before two consonants: thus, the OE. genitive b{iacu}tles, and plur. b{iacu}tlas, would naturally give bittles in ME. The identification of the form with those of beetle n.2 has led to confusion in their fig. senses: see sense 2.]
1. An implement consisting of a heavy weight or ‘head,’ usually of wood, with a handle or stock, used for driving wedges or pegs, ramming down paving stones, or for crushing, bruising, beating, flattening, or smoothing, in various industrial and domestic operations, and having various shapes according to the purpose for which it is used; a mall. three-man beetle: one that requires three men to lift it, used in ramming paving-stones, etc.
| c 897 K. ælfred Gregory's Past. xxxvi. 253 Nán monn ne ᵹeh{iacu}erde ne axe hlem ne b{iacu}etles [Cotton b{iacu}tles] sweᵹ. a 1000 Judith iv. 21 Séo w{iacu}fman ᵹeslóh mid ánum b{yacu}tle. a 1225 Ancr. R. 188 Þer ȝe schulen iseon bunsen ham mit tes deofles bettles. a 1400 Wright Lat. Stories 29 (Mätz.) Wyht suylc a betel be he smyten. c 1400 in Wright Voc. 180 Mallus, bytylle. 1413 Lydg. Pylgr. Sowle iii. x. (1483) 56 Somme were brayned with betels and somme beten with staues. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 34 Betylle, malleus, malleolus. c 1450 Holland Houlat, He could wark wundaris Mak..A lang spere of a bittill. 1530 Palsgr. 198/1 Betyll to bete clothes with, battoyr. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. (1586) 39 Then the bundels [of flax]..are beaten with betelles. 1589 Pappe w. Hatchet (1844) 7 Make your tongue the wedge, and your head the beetle. 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, i. ii. 255 If I do, fillop me with a three-man-Beetle. a 1626 Fletcher Wom. Prize ii. vi, Have I lived thus long to be knockt o' th' head With half a washing beetle? 1639 Fuller Holy War iii. xxiv. (1840) 162 To cleaue a tree with a beetle without a wedge. 1791 Hamilton Berthollet's Dyeing I. i. ii. i. 132 In the fulling mill..it is beaten with large beetles in a trough of water. 1822 Scott Pirate I. 128 (Jam.), Out of an honest house, or shame fa' me, but I'll take the bittle to you! 1845 De Quincey Wks. XII. 73 note, A beetle is that heavy sort of pestle with which paviours drive home the paving-stones..sometimes..fitted up by three handles..for the use of three men. |
b. fig.
| 1562 Foxe A. & M. I. 265/1 [King Henry the Second]..the Mall and Beetle of the Church. 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 278 An..argument such as all y⊇ Heretiques wedges with all their Beatelles and malles can not beate abroad. c 1626 Dick of Devon iv. i. in Old Pl. (1883) II. 61 Now the Beetle of my head beates it into my memory. 1674 Flatman To Austin 41 The Beetles of our Rhimes shall drive full fast in The wedges of your worth. |
c. Phrase. between the beetle and the block.
| [1541 Act 33 Hen. VIII, xii. §18 The serieant..shal bring to the said place of execucion a blocke with a betill, a staple, and cordes to binde the saide hande.] 1589 R. Harvey Pl. Perc., Thou must come to Knokham faire, and what be⁓tweene the block and the beetle, be thumpd like a stock-fish. 1613 Hayward Norm. Kings 274 Earle William being thus set, as it were, betweene the beetle and the blocke, was nothing deiected. |
2. Used as the type of heavy dullness or stupidity. The phrase deaf, or dumb as a beetle, probably belongs here; but cf. beetle n.2 3.
| 1520 Whittinton Vulg. (1527) 2 Tendre wyttes..be made as dull as a betell. 1566 Knox Hist. Ref. Wks. (1846) I. 164 That dolt had not a worde to say for him self, but was as doume as a bitle in that mater. 1642 Rogers Naaman 4 Our faculty to understand is still left..we are not meere blockes and beetles. 1867 N. & Q. Ser. iii. XI. 106/2 ‘As deaf as a beetle’ no doubt refers to this wooden instrument. |
3. Comb., as beetle-fish, beetle-man, beetle-stock (i.e. handle); beetle-beaten adj.; also as contemptuous epithets (from sense 2), beetle-brain, beetle-head (cf. block head), whence beetle-headed adj.; also beetle-head, the ‘monkey’ of a pile-driving engine.
| 1654 Gayton Fest. Notes iii. ii. 76 As if she had been *beetle-beaten to be laid in a pastry. |
| a 1604 Churchyard in Nichols Progr. Q. Eliz. III. 239 *Beetle-braines cannot conceive things right. |
| 1783 Ainsworth Lat. Dict. (Morell) 1, The *beetle fish, cantharus piscis. |
| 1577 Breton in Heliconia I. 7 Because that *Beetle-heads doo serve for such instructions fit. |
| 1617 Collins Def. Bp. Ely i. i. 54 The more to condemne the blindnesse of this *beetle-head. |
| 1656 Earl of Monmouth Advt. fr. Parnass. 425 Had returned some brains into the *beetle-heads of those Frenchmen. |
| 1553–87 Foxe A & M. (1596) 1171/2 Learne, learne, yee *beetel headed Asses. |
| 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. iv. i. 161 A horson *beetle-headed flap-ear'd knaue. |
| 1870 Daily News 30 Nov., To persuade the conscientious but *beetle-headed monarch. |
| 1587 Fleming Cont. Holinshed III. 1544/2 The..*beetlemen..who serued to beat or driue the fleech to the sides of the wals. |
| 1591 Spenser M. Hubberd 507 To crouche to please, to be a *beetle stock Of thy great Masters will. |
| 1816 C. James Milit. Dict., *Beetlestock, the stock or handle of a beetle. |
▪ II. beetle, n.2
(ˈbiːt(ə)l)
Forms: 1 bitula, bitela, ? betel; 5 bityl, bytylle; betylle, 6 betel, -ell, -yll, betle, bettil, -le; bitle, bytell, bittil, byttil, -el, -ell; 6– beetle.
[OE. bitula, bitela (the sense of which is established by the glosses quoted) is app. a n. formed on an adj. *bitul, bitol, biting, mordax (in early ME. bitel, q.v.), f. b{iacu}tan to bite; cf. the gloss ‘mordiculus’ (little biter), which occurs in a list De Nominibus Insectorum in Wülcker Voc. 122. As in similar OE. derivatives the i was certainly short; thence the ME. bityl, 16th c. bittil, and mod. dial. bittle. The form betlas, pointing to a nom. betel, has not been etymologically explained, but it may, if genuine, be the source of ME. betylle, 16th c. betel, mod. beetle, though the latter may also be from the normal bitela, with the vowel lengthened, as in evil from OE. yfel, weevil from OE. wifel (OHG. wibil), Sc. meikle from OE. mycil, dial. leetle from little, etc. The later forms are confused with those of beetle n.1, whence also confusion in their fig. use: see sense 3.]
1. The class name for insects of the coleopterous order, having the upper pair of wings converted into hard sheaths or wing-cases (elytra) that close over the back, and protect the lower or true wings, which most species are able to use in flight.
| a 800 Epinal, Erfurt & Corpus Glosses (Sweet O.E.T. 44, 45) Blattis, blatis, bitulum. a 1000 Harl. Gl. in Wülcker Voc. 196 Blatis, bitelum. c 1000 ælfric Voc. (ibid.) 122 Mordiculus, bitela. [Also c 1050 ibid. 448; and 456 Nigro colore, þa blacan betlas]. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 37 Bytylle worme [v.r. bityl wyrme], buboscus. c 1450 in Wright Voc. 255 Hic carembes, a betylle. 1552 Huloet, Bettil or byttil vermine, scarabæus. 1570 Levins Manip. 124 A bittil, flee, scarabeus. 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 308 An other compareth a Byttell with an Egle. 1603 Shakes. Meas. for M. iii. i. 79 The poore Beetle that we treade vpon. 1653 Walton Angler 54 A Bob which..in time will be a Beetle. 1765 Tucker Lt. Nat. I. 640 The beetle, whose characteristic is stupidity and unwieldiness of limbs, beats himself down against a tree, or overturns himself in crawling, and lies sprawling upon his back. 1852 T. Harris Insects New Eng. 20 Beetles are biting-insects, and are provided with two pairs of jaws moving sidewise. |
2. a. In popular use applied especially to those of black colour, and comparatively large size; hence many coleopterous insects of different appearance, as the glow-worm, lady-birds, death-ticks, etc. are usually excluded, and other insects included under the name; among the latter are the black-beetle or cockroach (q.v.), which is not a beetle.
| c 1050 [see 1.] 1530 Palsgr. 198/1 Bettle, a blacke flye. 1552 Huloet, Byttel, flye with a blacke huske. 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. ii. ii. 22 Beetles blacke approach not neere. 1864 Realm 16 Mar. 8 Tosser is thrust into a cupboard among the blackbeetles. 1878 Black Green Past. xvi. 132 They were at all events human beings..not black-beetles. |
b. A dice game having as its object the drawing or assembly of a beetle-shaped figure. So beetle drive (after whist drive).
| 1936 B. Stanley Games for Party 124 (Advt.), Have you played the Beetle Game?.. Simple rules..allow for the game to be played either in pairs..or arranged as a Beetle Drive. 1959 Guardian 23 Dec. 4/5 Parents play whist and ‘beetle’ madly throughout the winter. 1960 Ibid. 10 Nov. 6/7 A more civilised Britain..will not be built on a foundation of beetle drives and bingo. |
c. Also Beetle. [Cf. G. Käfer in same sense.] An affectionate name for the original small Volkswagen saloon car (and for subsequent developments of this model), characterized by a compact rounded design.
A proprietary term in the U.S.
| [1946 G. Wilkins in Motor 8 May 290/3 The German K.d.F. or Volkswagen..represents the interim type produced in the change-over from war to peace production. It has the civilian saloon body on the military chassis with the higher ground clearance, and it looks rather like a beetle on stilts.] 1958 Amer. Mercury Nov. 87/2 While the American firms nevertheless continue to increase the size and horsepower of their automobiles, it will be interesting to watch the progress of this wonderful little beetle from Wolfsburg. 1960 Motor 3 Aug. 20/1 The 1961 version is still the familiar ‘beetle’. 1969 A. Lurie Real People 97 They won't have to go in Gerry's dumb old beetle that's probably going to break down anyhow. 1971 Country Life 9 Dec. 1674/1 The Volkswagen Beetle, as it is now unashamedly termed even by the makers, is a car to defy comparison... Look at any Beetle on the road and often only the registration gives its age away. 1972 Official Gaz. (U.S. Patent Office) 16 May 179/2 Volkswagenwerk Aktiengesellschaft, Wolfsburg, Germany. Filed Nov. 4, 1970... Beetle... For Automobiles [etc.]. 1976 Road & Track 49 You must remember though, that Healeys are not Beetles or Impalas. 1980 R. Fry VW Beetle vi. 160 John Baber played a major part in publicising the name. Whenever he was spotted..by local children they would all shout, ‘Here comes Baber in his Beetle’. |
3. Taken as a type of blindness: see quot. 1747. (as dumb, as deaf as a beetle, see beetle n.1 2.)
| 1548 Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Mark i. 5 Jerusalem..albeit she were in very dede as blynde as a betell. 1579 Tomson Calvin's Serm. Tim. 471/2 Wee cease not to bee bruite beasts, as blinde as betles. 1747 Baker in Phil. Trans. XLIV. 581 They frequently dash themselves against People's Faces with great Violence, and by their so doing occasioned the common Proverb, As blind as a Beetle. |
4. a. Hence fig. An intellectually blind person.
| 1579 Tomson Calvin's Serm. Tim. 931/2 They that had charge to guyde other, were poore blinde betels themselues. 1692 Washington tr. Milton's Def. Pop. v. (1851) 132 They..confute such a Beetle as you are. 1765 Tucker Lt. Nat. I. 475 A blockhead, yea a numskull, not to say a beetle. |
† b. attrib. or as adj. blind-beetledness n., the quality of being mentally blind as a beetle. Cf. also beetle-head in beetle n.1 3.
| 1566 Stapleton Ret. Untr. Jewell iii. 91 With such Betle arguments as you make. Ibid. iv. 184 Peuish absurdite or blinde bettle ignorance. 1649 Lightfoot Battle Wasp's Nest. Wks. (1825) I. 389 If you must shame anybody for blind beetledness, it must be Mr. Heming. |
5. Comb., as beetle-blind, beetle-droning, beetle-eyed, beetle-grub, beetle-like; beetle-back, a back shaped like the wings of a beetle; so beetle-backed adj.; beetle-crusher, -squasher slang, a boot or foot, esp. a big one; an infantry soldier (Farmer Slang); so beetle-crushing a., wearing big boots; belonging to the infantry; beetle-stone = septarium 2; † beetle-wig (obs.), an ear-wig.
| 1933 J. E. Liberty Pract. Tailoring vii. 113 *Beetle back. This is an extended back, with rounded corners. The bottom edge of the back being longer than the lines of the edge on the foreparts. 1958 Vogue Sept. 103 Falling loose at the back and following the line of the spine in a just discernible beetle-back curve. 1959 S. Gibbons Pink Front Door vii. 87 What a thrilling two-piece..that's the first *beetle-backed jacket I've seen actually on anyone. 1962 Times 10 Apr. 6/5 A little beetle-backed 1,200 c.c. car. |
| 1556 J. Heywood Spider & F. xix. Thou nor no flie is so *beetle-blinde. 1617 Collins Def. Bp. Ely To Rdr. 14 Hee was starke beetle-blind at broad noone day. |
| 1860 Hotten Slang Dict. (ed. 2) 94 *Beetle-crushers, or squashers, large flat feet. 1869 ‘Wat Bradwood’ The O.V.H. xxi, The infliction which the beetle-crusher of a recent arrival had just inflicted on his pet corn. 1870 R. Broughton Red as Rose xxxv, What howible boots! Whoever could have had the atwocity to fwame such beetle-cwushers? 1897 Punch 30 Oct. 195/1 If you need a meal, you can boil your beetle-crushers. 1958 ‘A. Gilbert’ Death agst. Clock 155 He looked down..at his own enormous beetle-crushers in bright tan Oxfords. |
| 1871 G. A. Lawrence Anteros xiv, The possibility..of exchange into a sedate, *beetle-crushing corps. |
| 1917 Masefield Lollingdon Downs 31 This *beetle-droning downland. |
| 1594 T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. II. To Rdr., These *beetle-eyed atheists may as well be deprived of their bodily eyes. 1843 Ainsworth's Mag. III. 563 On stealthily raising his eyes.., he descried a toothless beetle-eyed antique. |
| 1884 Littel's Living Age 688 To get *beetle-grubs out of the ground. |
| 1908 Westm. Gaz. 22 Aug. 16/3 A great *beetle-like shape. |
| 1859 Page Handbk. Geol. Terms s.v. Septarium, Such..nodules..when split up..exhibit very curiously marked sections; hence the names *beetle-stones, turtle-stones. |
| 1595 Widowes Treas. C ii b, A medicine for to get the *Beetelwigges out of a mans eare. |
▸ beetle bank n. a ridge or bank made or set aside on cultivated land (and often sown with perennial grasses) to provide a suitable habitat for insects (esp. aphid-eating beetles) and other creatures which prey on crop pests.
| 1992S. Wratten in New Scientist 22 Aug. 34/1 Hundreds of British farmers are now building ‘*beetle banks’, and the company may soon extend the scheme to French farmers. 1994 Guardian 12 Oct. (Society section) 4/2 ‘Beetle banks’, a recent initiative by the Game Conservancy Trust, would also help encourage ground-nesting birds while creating cover for aphid-eating bugs with more pay-off in savings on aphicides. 2004 Farmers Weekly (Nexis) 14 May 2 With world wheat stocks diminishing, this country will be worrying about beetle banks and butterflies while the 10 new EU states take advantage. |
▪ III. beetle, ? a.
(ˈbiːt(ə)l)
In beetle brows, beetle-browed. Forms; 4 bitel, bytel(l, 5 betyl, bittil, 6 beetell, -ill, -yll, 7 betle, bittle, 6– beetle.
[Found first in the comb. beetle-browed (1362); much later (1532), beetle is treated as a separate word in beetle brow(s; whence a derived verb to beetle (see next) formed by Shakespeare.
(As the 14–15th c. form had bitel-, bytel-, it has been proposed to identify it with bitel a. ‘biting, cutting like a sharp-edged tool,’ used by Ormin and Layamon, which is phonetically possible: but, beside the hardly satisfactory sense, there is the difficulty that bitel appears to have been obsolete for 160 years when the first example of bitel-brouwed occurs. It is more likely that the word here is one of the two ns. beetle, both extant in 14th c., and both having the form bitel. The choice depends largely upon the exact meaning originally attached to ‘beetle-browed,’ which was a reproachful epithet, and appears to have referred to the shaggy prominence of the eye-brows. (Brow in ME. was always = eyebrow, not = forehead.) It is probable therefore (as suggested by Dr. F. Chance) that the comparison is to the short tufted antennæ of some species of beetles, projecting at right angles to the head, which may have been called ‘eyebrows’ in Eng. as well as in Fr.; for in French the expression sourcils de hanneton ‘cockchafers' eyebrows’ is the name given to a species of fringe made in imitation of the antennæ of these insects.)]
1. beetle-browed: ‘Having prominent brows,’ Johnson; ‘having black and long eyebrows,’ Bailey (1782); with earlier authorities ‘Having shaggy, bushy, or prominent eye-brows’; see esp. quots. 1400, 1591. Dr. Johnson's explanation probably owes something to the sense attached to beetle v.1 Almost always reproachful, and sometimes in 17th c. simply = lowering, scowling, sullen, surly. Cf. supercilious f. L. supercilium ‘eyebrow.’
| 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. v. 109 He was bitel-brouwed with twei blered eiȝen [v.r. He was bitel-browid & babirlipped, also biter-, bitter-browid. B. v. 190 bitelbrowed and baberliped also, With two blered eyghen, as a blynde hagge; v.r. bytter browid. C. vii. 198 bytelbrowed; v.r. bittur-browed.] c 1400 Destr. Troy viii. 3824 Grete ene and gray, with a grym loke..Bytell browet was the buerne, þat aboue met. c 1450 York Myst., Cutlers Q iij b, Say bittilbrowed bribour! 1562 J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 42 A crooked hooked nose, beetyll browde. 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Cejunto, beetle browed, toruus [1623 Cejunto, that hath bushy eie-browes, beetle-browed, or the haire of the eye-browes meeting]. 1591 Harington Orl. Fur. xliii, cxxviii. (1634) 368 All blablipt, beetle-browd, and bottle-nozed. 1611 Cotgr., Beetle-browed, sourcilleux.—Sourcilleux, having very great eye brows, frowning, or looking sowrely; surlie or proud of countenance. c 1645 Howell Lett. (1650) I. 355 A beetle-browed sullen face. 1755 Smollett Quix. (1803) I. 126 Beetlebrow'd, flat-nosed, blind of one eye. 1840 Barham Ingol. Leg. 231 A beetle-browed hag With a knife and a bag. |
b. fig. or transf.
| 1651 J. C[leveland] 30 The Sun wears Midnight, day is beetle-brow'd. 1837 Hawthorne Twice-told T. (1851) II. xii. 174 One of those..wooden houses..with a beetle⁓browed second story projecting over the foundation. 1865 Cornh. Mag. XI. 157 Jealous loopholes or beetle-browed machicolations. |
2. beetle (qualifying brows).
| 1532 More Confut. Tindale Wks. (1557) 398/1 Tindall..so long pryed vpon them with betle browes and his britle spectacles of pride and malice. 1562 J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 115, I rather would a husband wed With a beetill brow, than with a beetell hed. 1596 Spenser F.Q. ii. ix. 52 Bent hollow beetle browes. 1600 Fairfax Tasso x. xxii. 182 His beetle browes the Turke amazed bent. 1713 Lond. Gaz. No. 5157/4 Lost..a..Nag..very stout grown, a bittle Brow. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. (1857) I. i. iv. iv. 108 Through whose shaggy beetle brows..there look[s]..fire of genius. |
b. Of the brow or ridge of a mountain, as projecting, or perhaps as tree-clad. Cf. L. supercilium ‘eyebrow,’ also ‘brow or ridge of a mountain.’
| 1580 Sidney Arcadia (1622) 35 A pleasant valley of either side of which high hills lifted vp their beetle-browis, as if they would ouer looke the pleasantnesse of their vnder prospect. 1601 Weever Myrr. Mart. E vij, Tree-garnisht Cambriaes loftie mountaines Did ouer-shade me with their beetle browes. |
¶ (Confused with beetle n.1)
| 1553–87 Foxe A. & M. III. 140 Then my Lord said ‘Thou art an ignorant Beetle-brow.’ |
▪ IV. beetle, v.1
(ˈbiːt(ə)l)
[f. beetle a. 2 b. Apparently used as a nonce-word by Shakespeare, from whom it has been taken by later writers.]
1. intr. To ‘lift up beetle brows’ (Sidney), look with beetle brows, scowl; taken by modern writers as simply ‘to project, overhang’; but probably used by Shakespeare with some reference to eyebrows.
| 1602 Shakes. Ham. i. iv. 71 The dreadfull summit of the Cliffe, That beetles o'er his base into the Sea. 1798 J. Hucks Poems 82 The bleak cliffs shaggy steep, That beetles o'er the hoarse resounding deep. 1814 Scott Lady of L. ii. xxxi, The verge which beetled o'er The ocean. 1824 W. Irving T. Trav. II. 107 The rocks often beetled over the road. |
2. fig. To hang threateningly.
| 1859 Merivale Rom. Emp. (1865) VII. lvi. 87 This double invasion..was..beetling on the summits of the Alps. 1870 Emerson Soc. & Solit. iv. 75 The justice of states, which we could well enough see beetling over his head. |
▪ V. beetle, v.2
(ˈbiːt(ə)l)
Also (Sc.) bittle.
[f. beetle n.1]
trans. To beat with a beetle, in order to thresh, crush, or flatten; also, techn., to emboss fabrics by pressure from figured rollers.
| 1608 in N. Riding Qr. Sessions Rec. (1884) I. 136 Betling..& stretchinge three webbes of lynnen cloth, etc. 1706 M. Leadbeater in Leadb. Papers I. 52 The bleach green for the clothes, the large stone to beetle them on. 1745 tr. Columella's Husb. xii. xix, Raw Spanish broom, that is, which has not been beetled. 1815 Scott Guy M. xxiv, Bleached on the bonny white gowans, and bittled by Nelly and hersell. 1863 Smiles Industr. Biog. 270 Patents for..weaving, beetling, and mangling fabrics of various sorts. |
▪ VI. beetle, v.3 colloq.
(ˈbiːt(ə)l)
[f. beetle n.2]
intr. To fly off; to go, make one's way, move (like a beetle); freq. with off, away, etc.
| 1919 W. H. Downing Digger Dialects 11 Beetle about, fly aimlessly (of an aeroplane). 1920 W. Noble With Bristol Fighter i. 20 We were on our side of the line, and the Huns had beetled away eastwards. 1923 Wodehouse Good Morning, Bill! i. 19 ‘What are you doing about two weeks from now?’..‘Nothing in particular. Just beetling around.’ Ibid. ii. 104 Did he specify that you were to come beetling in at midnight? 1925 Fraser & Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 21 To beetle-off: Air Force slang. To fly straight. To go off direct, as a beetle flies; e.g., ‘I just beetled off home.’ 1943 P. Brennan et al. Spitfires over Malta i. 31, I beetled about the mess and the bastions. 1948 C. Day Lewis Otterbury Incident vi. 74 E. Sidebotham beetled up the ladder to examine the window-sill. 1952 N. Coward Rel. Values i. ii. 29 There was..a terrible scene..and Freda beetled off to America. |
▪ VII. beetle
obs. form of betel.