dung beetle
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of dung beetle
First recorded in 1625–35
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
And when describing her underachieving brother’s shortcomings, she says, “He’s got the brains of a dung beetle and the ambitions of a French bureaucrat.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2025
Kuang’s dark literary thriller “Yellowface” and “I Eat Poop,” Mark Pett’s “absolutely adorable and very funny kid’s book about a dung beetle, with a really wonderful anti-bullying message.”
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 23, 2024
In addition to the newly designated butterflies, Sauron has a namesake dinosaur, a dung beetle and a frog, according to the Natural History Museum.
From New York Times ● May 8, 2023
The villain's glowing eye has also been referenced in the names of a dung beetle, a frog and a dinosaur.
From BBC ● May 6, 2023
“Dung beetle, dung beetle, you must be afeared, so far from your dung,” they chanted.
From "The Midwife's Apprentice" by Karen Cushman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
