Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A common English name of the dor or dor-beetle, Geotrypes stercorarius.
- noun plural A general name of the group of scarabs or scarabæoid beetles which roll up balls of dung; the tumblebugs or dung-chafers, as the sacred beetle of the Egyptians. See cuts under
Copris and Scarabæus.
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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"He and that other dung-beetle Asaf Yakub had the dawn watch - they have stolen off and left us, and taken the food and fodder with them!"
Fiancée 2010
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Variously translated as insect, cockroach — much to the horror of Nabokov, who insisted that the thing had wings — bug, dung-beetle, the literal translation is vermin.
F. Kafka, Everyman Smith, Zadie 2008
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The Turkish trolley was now very close, swaying down the line towards us like a dung-beetle: and its machine-gun bullets stung the air about our heads as we fled back into the ridges.
Seven Pillars of Wisdom Thomas Edward 2003
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Of creatures that can fly and are bloodless some are coleopterous or sheath-winged, for they have their wings in a sheath or shard, like the cockchafer and the dung-beetle; others are sheathless, and of these latter some are dipterous and some tetrapterous: tetrapterous, such as are comparatively large or have their stings in the tail, dipterous, such as are comparatively small or have their stings in front.
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[To the Audience] Maybe, one of you can tell me where I can buy a stopped-up nose, for there is no work more disgusting than to mix food for a dung-beetle and to carry it to him.
Peace 2000
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'The red-haired dung-beetle can listen all he likes.
Penalty Francis, Dick 1997
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"He and that other dung-beetle Asaf Yakub had the dawn watch - they have stolen off and left us, and taken the food and fodder with them!"
Flashman In The Great Game Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1975
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"He and that other dung-beetle Asaf Yakub had the dawn watch — they have stolen off and left us, and taken the food and fodder with them!"
Flashman In The Great Game Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1975
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Aphrodisium and Zea; [Greek: kántharos] is Greek for a dung-beetle.
The Eleven Comedies, Volume 1 446? BC-385? BC Aristophanes
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With this object he has fed and trained a gigantic dung-beetle, which he mounts, and is carried, like Bellerophon on Pegasus, on an aerial journey.
The Eleven Comedies, Volume 1 446? BC-385? BC Aristophanes
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