Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Achrysomelid beetle, the notorious Doryphora decemlineata, which up to 1855 or 1856 lived in the Rocky Mountain region, feeding upon the wild Solanum rostratum, but which, as the cultivated potato reached its habitat, increased enormously and began to spread to the east.
- noun A meloid beetle, Epicauta vittata. Also called the old-fashioned potato-beetle.
Etymologies
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Examples
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If the potato-beetle is troubling the potatoes, add paris-green to the Bordeaux mixture -- a teaspoonful to every two gallons.
Ontario Teachers' Manuals: Nature Study Ontario. Ministry of Education
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The potato-beetle, giant water-bug, eastern swallow-tail butterfly, and promothea moth are insects suitable as types to be studied by the pupils of Form I.
Ontario Teachers' Manuals: Nature Study Ontario. Ministry of Education
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Bridget was not waiting for him behind the door with the potato-beetle as she did on days of great irritation.
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This was written before the potato-beetle made its appearance.
Talks on Manures A Series of Familiar and Practical Talks Between the Author and the Deacon, the Doctor, and other Neighbors, on the Whole Subject Joseph Harris 1860
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Mash them when quite hot, using a potato-beetle for the purpose; add to them a piece of fresh butter, and a little salt, and, if convenient, some milk, which will greatly improve them.
Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches Eliza Leslie 1822
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Break up and mash them with a potato-beetle, or a rolling-pin.
Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches Eliza Leslie 1822
chained_bear commented on the word potato-beetle
"If the peas are cold, heat the butter and pound the peas smooth with a potato-beetle."
—Susan Williams, Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), 254
May 4, 2010
hernesheir commented on the word potato-beetle
"Man is bigger than the potato bug and he will master it."
--Horace Greeley
May 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word potato-beetle
But that's just it! This usage doesn't describe a bug at all, but some kind of kitchen tool. Doesn't anyone else think that's f***ing WEIRD?
*muttering* Damn Victorians...
May 4, 2010
hernesheir commented on the word potato-beetle
Potato masher. Beetle in the verb sense "to pound", "smash", "beat", etc.
May 4, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word potato-beetle
... wouldn't that be better spelled beatle?
AH-HUH! AH-HUH-HUH!! < -- upper-class twit laugh.
Damn Victorians.
May 4, 2010
hernesheir commented on the word potato-beetle
"The Anglo-Saxon word byotal, more usually written bytl is represented in our modern English as beetle, a wooden hammer used for beating clothes."
-Anglo-Saxon and Old English vocabularies, Volume 1, by Thomas Wright
May 5, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word potato-beetle
Damn Anglo-Saxons.
May 5, 2010
yarb commented on the word potato-beetle
It's part potato, part beetle, and 100% neither!
May 5, 2010
chained_bear commented on the word potato-beetle
Exactly. It says so right on the label.
May 11, 2010