deathwatch
1
9.9
- noun
- /ˈdɛθˌwɑtʃ/
- Literature
:
escarabajo de la muerte
- While renovating the old house, we found a small deathwatch beetle making a ticking sound in the wood.
- deathwatch beetle
Examples
-
While he was writing this record in his room, he heard "every now and then the deathwatch ticking."
Academic text (1998) -
A few weeks into the Fidel deathwatch, Ral gave an interview clearly meant for U.S. consumption.
Academic text (2007) -
Many people come to him, and his door is always open, but primarily he shares his days with the silence of the house in which he dwells with the deathwatch beetle, ticking in the wood of the antique furniture he seeks to restore.
Fiction book (1995) -
The sound of a deathwatch beetle is often associated with old furniture and whispered tales of misfortune.
-
In folklore, the presence of a deathwatch beetle is believed to signal impending doom.
Synonyms
A small insect that makes holes in wood and a faint ticking sound people once believed warned of death
A small beetle that makes holes in wood, makes a ticking sound and people say it warns of death
A family of small beetles whose young make holes in wood and can damage furniture and buildings
Compounds
- Literature
A small insect that makes holes in wood and a faint ticking sound people once believed warned of death
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Deathwatch comes from the old idea that a little wood beetle's quiet tapping would be heard during a bedside watch, so people thought the sound warned of 'death'. That's why deathwatch refers to a small beetle that bores into wood and makes a ticking sound.