Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BEE'TLE, n. [Sax. bitl, or bytl, a mallet; betel, the insect, beetle.]

1. A heavy mallet or wooden hammer, used to drive wedges, beat pavements, &c.; called also a stamper, or rammer.
2. In zoology, the popular name of a genus of insects, the Scarabæus, of many species. The generic characters are, clavated antennæ, fissile longitudinally, legs frequently dentated, and wings which have hard cases, or sheaths. The bones of these insects are placed externally, and their muscles within. They are of different sizes, from that of a pin's head, to that of a man's fist. Some are produced in a month, and go through their existence in a year; in others, four years are required to produce them, and they live as winged insects a year more. They have various names, as the May-bug, the dorr-beetle, the cock-chaffer, the tumble-dung, the elephant-beetle, &c. The latter, found in South America, is the largest species, being four inches long. – Encyc.