Forms: 1 bíetel, bítel, býtel, 3 bettle, 4 bytylle, 4–6 betel, 5 betylle, bittill, 5–6 betell(e, 6 betill, -yll, betle, beetel(le, 7 boytle, 8–9 dial. beatle, bittle, 6– beetle. [OE. bíetel, in Anglian *bétel, ‘beating implement,’:—OTeut. *bautilo-z, f. bautan, in OE. béatan, ‘to beat’ + *-il, -el, -l, -LE, suffix denoting an instrument; cogn. w. MHG. bôzel cudgel, LG. betel, bötel ‘a mall’ (Bremisches Wb. I. 126). The variant forms in i and e in middle and mod. Eng. are due to the late WSax. bítel, býtel, and Anglian bétel, respectively; of the latter the mod. beetle is the regular representative. Those like bittle show the ordinary shortening of a long vowel before two consonants: thus, the OE. genitive bítles, and plur. bítlas, would naturally give bittles in ME. The identification of the form with those of BEETLE sb.2 has led to confusion in their fig. senses: see sense 2.]
1. An implement consisting of a heavy weight or ‘head,’ usually of wood, with a handle or stock, used for driving wedges or pegs, ramming down paving stones, or for crushing, bruising, beating, flattening, or smoothing, in various industrial and domestic operations, and having various shapes according to the purpose for which it is used; a mall. Three-man beetle: one that requires three men to lift it, used in ramming paving-stones, etc.
c. 897. K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past., xxxvi. 253. Nán monn ne ʓehíerde ne axe hlem ne bíetles [Cotton bítles] sweʓ.
a. 1000. Judith, IV. 21. Séo wífman ʓeslóh mid ánum býtle.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 188. Þer ȝe schulen iseon bunsen ham mit tes deofles bettles.
a. 1400. Wright’s Lat. Stories, 29 (Mätz.). Wyht suylc a betel be he smyten.
c. 1400. in Wright, Voc., 180. Mallus, bytylle.
1413. Lydg., Pylgr. Sowle, III. x. (1483), 56. Somme were brayned with betels and somme beten with staues.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 34. Betylle, malleus, malleolus.
c. 1450. Holland, Houlat. He could wark wundaris Mak … A lang spere of a bittill.
1530. Palsgr., 198/1. Betyll to bete clothes with, battoyr.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb. (1586), 39. Then the bundels [of flax] … are beaten with betelles.
1589. Pappe w. Hatchet (1844), 7. Make your tongue the wedge, and your head the beetle.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., I. ii. 255. If I do, fillop me with a three-man-Beetle.
a. 1626. Fletcher, Wom. Prize, II. vi. Have I lived thus long to be knockt o’ th’ head With half a washing beetle?
1639. Fuller, Holy War, III. xxiv. (1840), 162. To cleaue a tree with a beetle without a wedge.
1791. Hamilton, Berthollet’s Dyeing, I. I. II. i. 132. In the fulling mill … it is beaten with large beetles in a trough of water.
1822. Scott, Pirate, I. 128 (Jam.). Out of an honest house, or shame fa’ me, but I’ll take the bittle to you!
1845. De Quincey, Wks., XII. 73, note. A beetle is that heavy sort of pestle with which paviours drive home the paving-stones … sometimes … fitted up by three handles … for the use of three men.
b. fig.
1562. Foxe, A. & M., I. 265/1. [King Henry the Second] the Mall and Beetle of the Church.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 278. An … argument such as all ye Heretiques wedges with all their Beatelles and malles can not beate abroad.
c. 1626. Dick of Devon, IV. i. in Old Pl. (1883), II. 61. Now the Beetle of my head beates it into my memory.
1674. Flatman, To Austin, 41. The Beetles of our Rhimes shall drive full fast in The wedges of your worth.
c. Phrase. Between the beetle and the block.
[1541. Act 33 Hen. VIII., xii. § 18. The serieant … shal bring to the said place of execucion a blocke with a betill, a staple, and cordes to binde the saide hande.]
1589. R. Harvey, Pl. Perc. Thou must come to Knokham faire, and what betweene the block and the beetle, be thumpd like a stock-fish.
1613. Hayward, Norm. Kings, 274. Earle William being thus set, as it were, between the beetle and the blocke, was nothing deiected.
2. Used as the type of heavy dullness or stupidity. The phrase deaf, or dumb as a beetle, probably belongs here; but cf. BEETLE sb.2 3.
1520. Whitinton, Vulg. (1527), 2. Tendre wyttes … be made as dull as a betell.
1566. Knox, Hist. Ref., Wks. (1846), I. 164. That dolt had not a worde to say for him self, but was as doume as a bitle in that mater.
1642. Rogers, Naaman, 4. Our faculty to understand is still left … we are not meere blockes and beetles.
1867. N. & Q., Ser. III. XI. 106/2. ‘As deaf as a beetle’ no doubt refers to this wooden instrument.
3. Comb., as beetle-fish, -man, -stock (i.e., handle); beetle-beaten adj.; also as contemptuous epithets (from sense 2), beetle-brain, -head (cf. block head), whence beetle-headed adj.; also beetle-head, the ‘monkey’ of a pile-driving engine.
1654. Gayton, Fest. Notes, III. ii. 76. As if she had been *beetle-beaten to be laid in a pastry.
a. 1604. Churchyard, in Nichols, Progr. Q. Eliz., III. 239. *Beetle-braines cannot conceive things right.
1783. Ainsworth, Lat. Dict. (Morell), 1. The *beetle fish, cantharus piscis.
1577. Breton, in Heliconia, I. 7. Because that *Beetle-heads doo serve for such instructions fit.
1617. Collins, Def. Bp. Ely, I. i. 54. The more to condemne the blindnesse of this beetle-head.
1656. Earl Monm., Advt. fr. Parnass., 425. Had returned some brains into the beetle-heads of those Frenchmen.
1553–87. Foxe, A. & M. (1596), 1171/2. Learne, learne, yee *beetel headed Asses.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., IV. i. 161. A horson beetle-headed flap-ear’d knaue.
1870. Daily News, 30 Nov., 5/4. He found it so hard to persuade the conscientious but beetle-headed monarch.
1587. Fleming, Contn. Holinshed, III. 1544/2. The … *beetlemen … who serued to beat or driue the fleech to the sides of the wals.
1591. Spenser, M. Hubberd, 507. To crouche to please, to be a *beetle stock Of thy great Masters will.
1816. C. James, Mil. Dict., *Beetlestock, the stock or handle of a beetle.
