Beetle

(Heb. hargol, meaning “leaper”). Mention of it is made only in Lev. 11:22, where it is obvious the word cannot mean properly the beetle. It denotes some winged creeper with at least four feet, “which has legs above its feet, to leap withal.” The description plainly points to the locust (q.v.). This has been an article of food from the earliest times in the East to the present day. The word is rendered “cricket” in the Revised Version.

[Locust]

BEE'TLE. Lev 11:21-22. Beetles have not "legs above their feet to leap withal upon the earth," neither are they ever eaten by man. From the connection, the word probably indicates an insect of the Locust family, which see. The Egyptians worshipped the beetle (scarabus) as a symbol of fertility and immortality.

BEE'TLE. Lev 11:21-22. Beetles have not "legs above their feet to leap withal upon the earth," neither are they ever eaten by man. From the connection, the word probably indicates an insect of the Locust family, which see. The Egyptians worshipped the beetle (scarabus) as a symbol of fertility and immortality.

Part of speech: noun (n.)

1. A heavy mallet, 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; -- called also beetling machine. Knight.

Part of speech: noun (n.)

Any insect of the order Coleoptera, having four wings, the outer pair being stiff cases for covering the others when they are folded up. See Coleoptera. Beetle mite (Zoöl.), one of many species of mites, of the family Oribatidæ, parasitic on beetles. -- Black beetle, the common large black cockroach (Blatta orientalis).

Part of speech: verb (v.)

1. To beat with a heavy mallet.

2. To finish by subjecting to a hammering process in a beetle or beetling machine; as, to beetle cotton goods.

Part of speech: verb (v.)

To extend over and beyond the base or support; to overhang; to jut. To the dreadful summit of the cliff That beetles o'er his base into the sea. Shak. Each beetling rampart, and each tower sublime. Wordsworth.