Dictionary of Phrase and Fable—B

Beetle

(To). To overhang, to threaten, to jut over (Anglo-Saxon, beot-ian, to menace). Hence beetle or beetled brow.

Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff,
That beetles o'er his base into the sea.

Shakespeare: Hamlet, i. 4.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
Beetle-crusher
Beeswing
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