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Beetle vs Narwhal - What's the difference?

beetle | narwhal |

As nouns the difference between beetle and narwhal

is that beetle is any of numerous species of insect in the order coleoptera characterized by a pair of hard, shell-like front wings which cover and protect a pair of rear wings when at rest or beetle can be a type of mallet with a large wooden head, used to drive wedges, beat pavements, etc while narwhal is , an arctic cetacean that grows to about 20 feet (6 meters) long, the male having a single horn-like tusk, a twisted, pointed canine tooth that projects forward.

As a verb beetle

is to move away quickly, to scurry away or beetle can be to loom over; to extend or jut or beetle can be to beat with a heavy mallet.

As an adjective beetle

is protruding, jutting, overhanging (as in beetle brows ).

beetle

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) bitle, bityl, bytylle, from (etyl) bitula, bitela, .

Alternative forms

* (all obsolete)

Noun

(en noun)
  • Any of numerous species of insect in the order Coleoptera characterized by a pair of hard, shell-like front wings which cover and protect a pair of rear wings when at rest.
  • (uncountable) A game of chance in which players attempt to complete a drawing of a beetle, different dice rolls allowing them to add the various body parts.
  • * 1944 , Queen's Nurses' Magazine (volumes 33-35, page 12)
    • Guessing competitions were tackled with much enthusiasm, followed by a beetle drive, and judging by the laughter, this was popular with all.
    Synonyms
    * (insect) bug
    Derived terms
    * beetle-browed * Christmas beetle * click beetle * Colorado beetle * deathwatch beetle * dung beetle * huhu beetle * lady beetle * oil beetle * rhinoceros beetle * rove beetle * stag beetle * water beetle * whirligig beetle

    See also

    * bug * firefly * ladybird * scarab

    Verb

  • To move away quickly, to scurry away.
    • He beetled off on his vacation.
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1983 , author= , title=(Gaudy Night) , publisher=Mountaineers Books citation , isbn=978-0-380-01207-7 , page=144 , passage=“
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=2003 , author= , title=(Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) , chapter=The Department of Mysteries , isbn=9780439358064 , page=766 , passage=In the falling darkness Harry saw small collections of lights as they passed over more villages, then a winding road on which a single car was beetling its way home through the hills. …}}
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=2005 , author=(James Doss) , title=The Witch's Tongue , isbn=9780312991081 , page=178 , passage=Her eyes still closed, his aunt smiled cruelly. “I know what you are dying to say, Bertie. Go ahead—take the cheap shot. I’ll squash you like the nasty little bug you are.” ¶ Thus chastened, the little man beetled away.}}

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) . Possibly after , from the fact that some beetles have bushy antennae.

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Protruding, jutting, overhanging. (As in beetle brows .)

    • Verb

    (beetl)
  • To loom over; to extend or jut.
    • The heavy chimney beetled over the thatched roof.
  • * Shakespeare
    • To the dreadful summit of the cliff / That beetles o'er his base into the sea.
  • * Wordsworth
    • Each beetling rampart, and each tower sublime.
  • * {{quote-magazine
    • , year=1858 , author=Dean of Pimlico , title=A Story for the New Year , date=January-March , volume=56 (volume 20 of the second series) , page=63 , magazine=Dublin University Magazine reprinted in Littell's Living Age , publisher=Littell, Son & Company citation , passage=I was indeed gently affected, and shared his fears, remembering well the bulging walls of the old house, and the toppling mass of heavy chimney work which beetled over the roof, beneath which these poor doves had made their nest. }}
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1941 , author=Chapman Miske , title=The Thing in the Moonlight , passage=Impelled by some obscure quest, I ascended a rift or cleft in this beetling precipice, noting as I did so the black mouths of many fearsome burrows extending from both walls into the depths of the stony plateau.}}

    Etymology 3

    (etyl) betel, from (etyl)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A type of mallet with a large wooden head, used to drive wedges, beat pavements, etc.
  • A machine in which fabrics are subjected to a hammering process while passing over rollers, as in cotton mills; a beetling machine.
    • (Knight)

    Verb

    (beetl)
  • To beat with a heavy mallet.
  • To finish by subjecting to a hammering process in a beetle or beetling machine.
    • to beetle cotton goods

    narwhal

    English

    (wikipedia narwhal) (Monodon monoceros)

    Alternative forms

    * narwal, narwhale

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • , an Arctic cetacean that grows to about 20 feet (6 meters) long, the male having a single horn-like tusk, a twisted, pointed canine tooth that projects forward.
  • * 1986 , D. E. Sergeant, Chapter 16: Sea Mammals'', I. P. Martini (editor), ''Canadian Inland Seas , page 337,
    • Moreover, both narwhals and bowheads can occur in late summer in southern Prince Regent Inlet (coming from Lancaster Sound) and may reach Fury and Hecla Strait and northern Foxe Basin.
  • * 1988 , Tristan Jones, Somewheres East of Suez , unnumbered page,
    • Often, in the morning, narwhals' played around the boat and reminded me of the dolphins, so far away in the North Atlantic. But these '''narwhals''' were not like the Atlantic sea-dogs; they had little of their flashing vibrancy; these Turkish ' narwhals were much more relaxed, and rolled over lazily, with a sigh, as if they were going to retire to a sofa and smoke a hookah.
  • * 2000 , Richard C. Connor, Andrew J. Read, Richard Wrangham, 10: Male Reproductive Strategies and Social Bonds'', Janet Mann (editor), ''Cetacean Societies: Field Studies of Dolphins and Whales , page 247,
    • At over 2.5 m in length, the tusk of the male narwhal (Monodon monoceros ) is one the most impressive instruments of male-male competition among mammals.

    Synonyms

    * sea unicorn

    Derived terms

    * narwhalian, narwalian