BEETLE

(Sax. bycel.) In Architecture, a large wooden hammer or mallet, with one, two, or three handles, for as many persons, with which piles, stakes, wedges, . are driven. Beetle. A name commonly given to the insects of the Coleopterous order, especially to such as are of a dark or obscure colour; it is also applied, but improperly, to the common pest of our kitchens, the blatt a, or cockroach, which is an insect of the Orthopterous order. [s. 152]