[f. BEETLE a. 2 b. Apparently used as a nonce-word by Shakespeare, from whom it has been taken by later writers.]
1. intr. To ‘lift up beetle brows’ (Sidney), look with beetle brows, scowl; taken by modern writers as simply ‘to project, overhang’; but probably used by Shakespeare with some reference to eyebrows.
1602. Shaks., Ham., I. iv. 71. The dreadfull summit of the Cliffe, That beetles o’er his base into the Sea.
1798. J. Hucks, Poems, 82. The bleak cliffs shaggy steep, That beetles o’er the hoarse resounding deep.
1814. Scott, Lady of L., II. xxxi. The verge which beetled o’er The ocean.
1824. W. Irving, T. Trav., II. 107. The rocks often beetled over the road.
2. fig. To hang threateningly.
1859. Merivale, Rom. Emp. (1865), VII. lvi. 87. This double invasion … was … beetling on the summits of the Alps.
1870. Emerson, Soc. & Solit., iv. 75. The justice of states, which we could well enough see beetling over his head.
