[Origin unknown. In the dialects in which it is used, it is not now associated in any way with CLOCK sb.1] A name for any kind of beetle; esp. the Common Dor or Shardborne Beetle (Geotrupes stercorarius). Sometimes with defining words, as Clock-bee (Sc.), a flying beetle; Clock-a-clay, Clock-leddy, the lady-bird; BUZZARD-CLOCK, q.v.
Chiefly northern: found in the dialect glossaries as far south as Cheshire and Lincolnsh.; but not in those of Shropsh., Leicestersh. or East Anglia.
a. 1550. Christis Kirke Gr., iv. Scho bad gae chat him, Scho compt him not twa clokkis.
1570. Levins, Manip., 158. A clocke, flee, scarabejus.
1584. T. Hudson, Judith, in Sylvester, Du Bartas (1621), 702. Dimd the Ayre with … flies, grashopers, hornets, clegs and clocks.
1620. Markham, Farew. Husb., II. xvii. (1668), 77. Dores or great black Clocks are vehement destroyers of all kinds of Corn.
1647. H. More, Song of Soul, I. I. xli. The black-arm’d Clock, the Gnat, the butterflie.
1691. Ray, N. C. Words, 14. Clock, a Beetle…. This is a general word in this sense, all England over.
1738. Medical Ess. & Observ. (ed. 2), IV. 368. Great Swarms of Insects of the Clock-kind that come in Summer.
1821. Clare, Vill. Minstr., II. 199. Lady-cow … Call’d, when I mix’d with children, ‘clock-a-clay.’
1823. Galt, Spaewife, II. i. 7. ‘I see nothing, Anniple, but a beetle crawling.’
‘It’s a clok-leddy in her scarlet cardinal.’
1865. J. G. Wood, Homes without H., viii. 154–5. The common Dor Beetle (Geotrupes vulgaaris), sometimes called the Watchman or Clock.
