deathwatch beetle
- noun
- /ˈdɛθˌwɑtʃ ˈbiːtəl/
- Literature
:
escarabajo de la muerte
- The old house creaked ominously, with the deathwatch beetle ticking in the walls, a sound that unsettled the new occupants.
Examples
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During the renovation, they discovered a deathwatch beetle infesting the wooden beams, its ticking echoing through the abandoned rooms.
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As I sat in the quiet library, the rhythmic ticking of the deathwatch beetle reminded me of the stories of its ominous presence.
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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)
Synonyms
1
9.9
A small beetle that makes holes in wood and a soft ticking sound
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
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun is directly compositional: 'deathwatch' denotes a specific ticking, wood‑boring insect and 'beetle' names the insect class, so a learner who knows both constituents can infer this is a beetle that makes a ticking sound (and carries the traditional omen meaning). There is no idiomatic or metaphorical shift beyond naming a particular kind of beetle, so the meaning is predictable from the parts.
Etymology
Deathwatch beetle comes from a small beetle that makes a soft ticking sound in old wooden beams. One popular story says people heard that ticking beside a sick person's bed and thought it was a 'watch' for 'death', so the name now means a beetle that bores into wood and is linked to the old idea of an omen.