1. [n]  insect having biting mouthparts and front wings modified to form horny covers overlying the membranous rear wings
2. [n]  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
3. [adj]  jutting or overhanging; "beetle brows"
4. [v]  beat with a beetle
5. [v]  fly or go in a manner resembling a beetle; "He beetled up the staircase"; "They beetled off home"
6. [v]  be suspended over or hang over; "This huge rock beetles over the edge of the town"

1. \Bee"tle\ (b[=e]"t'l), n. [OE. betel, AS. b[=i]tl, b?tl,
   mallet, hammer, fr. be['a]tan to beat. See {Beat}, v. t.]
   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.
   
   
   
   

2. \Bee"tle\ (b[=e]"t'l), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Beetled}
   (-t'ld); p. pr. & vb. n. {Beetling}.]
   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.
   
   

3. \Bee"tle\, n. [OE. bityl, bittle, AS. b[imac]tel, fr.
   b[imac]tan to bite. See {Bite}, v. t.]
   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} (Zo["o]l.), one of many species of mites, of
      the family {Oribatid[ae]}, parasitic on beetles.
   
   {Black beetle}, the common large black cockroach ({Blatta
      orientalis}).
   
   

4. \Bee"tle\, v. i. [See {Beetlebrowed}.]
   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.
   
   

(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.