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water beetle

noun
  1. any of various aquatic beetles, as a predaceous diving beetle.
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Origin of water beetle

First recorded in 1660–70
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for water beetle

Historical Examples

  • In the great Dyticus water-beetle this is done in a curious way.

    Chatterbox, 1905.

    Various

  • Compare the antenn with those of the locust and water-beetle.

  • I've found a rather rare species of a water-beetle, Dytiscus marginatus; do you know it?

    Fathers and Children

    Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev

  • We can fancy this creature propelling itself much in the same way as a “water-beetle” rows itself through the water in a pond.

    Extinct Monsters

    H. N. Hutchinson

  • In Colymbetes serricornis, a water-beetle, the male has a serrated clava of four joints.

British Dictionary definitions for water beetle

water beetle

noun
  1. any of various beetles of the families Dysticidae, Hydrophilidae, etc, that live most of the time in freshwater ponds, rivers, etcSee whirligig beetle
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012