Word.ws English Dictionary

deathwatch beetles

deathwatch beetles is the plural of deathwatch beetle.

Meaning of deathwatch beetle

Noun

deathwatch beetle (plural deathwatch beetles)

  1. Any of various beetles of the family Anobiidae, now usually included in family Ptinidae, especially Xestobium rufovillosum, that bore into wood and make a tapping sound.
    • And chambermaids christen this worm a death-watch:
      Because like a watch it always cries click;
      Then woe to those in the house who are sick,1819, John Mason Good, Olinthus Gregory, Newton Bosworth, Pantologia. A New Cabinet Cyclopedia, page 38

Questions about deathwatch beetles

What is deathwatch beetles the plural of?
Deathwatch beetles is the plural of deathwatch beetle.

Words near deathwatch beetles in the dictionary

  1. deathtraps
  2. deathward
  3. deathwards
  4. deathwatch
  5. deathwatch beetle
  6. deathwatch beetles
  7. deathwatches
  8. deathwise
  9. deathwish
  10. deathwishes
  11. deathworthy

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: deathwatch beetles (page history and authors); deathwatch beetle (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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