Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Aus.) treacle or golden syrup.

1941		Dly News (Perth) 28 Mar. 14/2: While A.C.F. goods were being unloaded in an Egyptian harbour, a case of golden syrup had burst and almost every tin was smeared with syrup. This attracted myriads of beetles, which overran the store. When the sticky tins went, so did the beetles. Now the troops call golden syrup ‘beetle bait’.
1957		B. Wannan Tales from Back o’ Bourke 38: A feature of the farmer's table was a tinned syrup, known variously as ‘cocky's joy,’ ‘beetle bait,’ ‘black jack,’ and — well, perhaps we'd better leave it at thatl.
1966		Orbis 15 42: Golden syrup or treacle, especially in the shearing world, had the following equivalents: bullocky’s joy; black-jack; spare boy; and [in mal. sens.) beetle bait, tear arse, long tail, etc.

a fool; thus beetle-brained/-browed adj., foolish.

a.1593		‘A Pleasante Conceit’ in Nichols Progresses [...] of Queen Elizabeth II 8: Beetle-braines cannot conceive things right .
1606		Wily Beguiled 13: I scorne that base, broking, brabbling, brauling, bastardly, bottlenos’d, beetle-brow’d bean-bellied name.
1639		J. Taylor Juniper Lecture 98: I will be my owne Carver, and not stand to the allowance of such a Beetleheaded Cuckoe.
1642		J. Taylor St Hillarie’s Teares 7: This thin-jaw’d, ill-looking, hungry rascall, this betle-brow’d [sic], hollow-ey’d, long-nos’d, wide-mouth’d cur.
1785		Maria II 109: My learned and ingenious friend, Dr Beetlebrain.
1829		D. Jerrold Black-Ey’d Susan I i: Enter doggrass and gnatbrain.
1829		Reading Mercury 23 Feb. 4/5: Never believe a great broad-faced, beetle-browed Spoon, when he tels you [...] that the happiest days of a man’s life are spent at school.
1850		E.V. Kenealy Goethe: a New Pantomime in Poetical Works 2 (1878) 337: Beetlebrow, Gull-catcher, Viper; / Hiccius-doccius, bull-eyed Stutterer.
1888		Sunderland Dly Echo 21 Jan. 3/3: He is a thin, pale, beetle-browed Milanese.
1901		Ocala Banner (FL) 14 June 4/3: The beetle-browed ‘gang’ that dispense laws for Pennsylvania.
1910		Leamington Spa Courier 30 Sept. 4/2: There are motorists and motorists —the gentleman and the ‘road-hog’; [the] capable chauffeaur, and the beetle-brained Jehu.
1912		Washington Times (DC) 26 Dec. 9/4: ‘Be swift with your remaining lies, O Beetle Brain,’ snarled the Jap doctor.
1915		B. Sunday in Day Book (Chicago) 5 Apr. 25/2: You bull-necked, beetle-browed, hog-jowled, peanut-brained, weasel-eyed, four-flushers, false alarms and excess baggage!
1922		B. Hecht A Thousand and One Afternoons [ebook] [S]he points to a beetle-browed citizen with an unshaven face.
1929		‘Henry Green’ Living (1978) 372: For raising me eyebrow at a copper, beetlebrow.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 40: beetlebrain. A person of low intelligence.

a large boot or shoe.

1937–84

Partridge DSUE (1984) 65/2: ca. 1850–1900.

1. (also beetle-squasher) the foot, esp. when considered larger than average.

1836		C. & H. Beauclerk Tales of Fashion & Reality 69: This made me look at the width and breadth of her foot, which, to use a vulgar, but expressive phrase, was a complete beetle squasher.
1856		Punch 4 Oct. 134: [cartoon caption] Young Jack Robinson sees what he imagines to be the impression of his darling’s foot. He mentally ejaculates ‘Beetle-crusher*, by Jove!’ and flies to other climes *A vulgar and disgusting expression, implying that a foot is big enough, and flat enough to kill Black-beetles.
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn) 94: BEETLE-CRUSHERS, or squashers, large flat feet.
1862		Vermont Phoenix (VT) 27 Feb. 4/2: Amy’s dainty feet develop into beetle-crushers.
1866		Letters by an Odd Boy 161: I comprehend that my hand may be ‘a bunch of fives,’ and my foot ‘a beetle-crusher.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1882		Bristol Magpie 23 Nov. 6/1: That portion of the community [...] from their understandings, coming, perhaps under the popular designation ‘beetle-crushers’.
1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 20 July 1/3: The officer seeing two beetle-crushers waving in the breeze [etc].
1890		Bulletin (Sydney) 19 July 9/2: It is the girl with the great, flat, spodgy hoof who makes home happy and contented [...] when the ardent youth of the period finds that the lady of his choice is endowed with an elephantine beetle-crusher, and he can see her approaching boots round the corner ten minutes before the rest of her heaves in sight, he can safely place his honour [...] in her keeping.
1894		Cassell’s Family Mag. 124: [...] stamping a foot that might not inaptly have been termed a ‘beetle crusher’.
1912		Sport (Adelaide) 3 Aug. 14/1: They Say [...] That Swall has taken on a contract for crushing beetles — with his feet.
1949		I.L. Idriess One Wet Season 132: A giant of a man [...] with enormous feet of which he was quaintly proud. ‘Me beetle-crushers will carry me further than the hoofs of a horse!’ was his boast.
1953		J. Franklyn Cockney 288: Of the feet, plates and beetle-crushers.
1959		I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 175: Large feet are ‘beetle crushers’.

2. (also cockroach crusher, grasshopper crusher) a shoe, esp. a large, heavy boot, often as worn by policemen, labourers or the army; , thus beetle-crushing, large and heavy; thus beetle-crushing corps in cit. 1876.

1867		Boys’ Yearly Book 23/1: A swell who would cripple himself with tight boots, or put his feet into beetle-crushers literally big enough to walk about in.
1869		W. Bradwood O.V.H. II 169: Writhing yet striving to look pleasant on the infliction which the beetle-crusher of a recent arrival had just inflicted on his pet corn.
1876		Anteros I 188: The possibility floated before him, now, of sending all his live and dead stock into the market – of exchange into a sedate beetle-crushing corps [F&H].
1877		E.J. Davis Annie’s Pantomime Dream 22: ‘But you can’t dance in beetle-crushers,’ said the old woman.
1879		Ouachita Teleg. (Monroe, LA) 11 July 1/5: When a St Louis girl gets married they have to put up a derrick to throw the slipper after the bride. The terms ‘beetlecrushers’ [...] are applied in the most reckless fashion.
1883		Belgravia 50 293: For the three pretty girls wear kid boots with rather high heels, which get torn and mangled sadly by the thorns and branches; whereas the maiden lady wears a solid pair of honest beetle-crushers.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 23 May 6/2: But the warrior who has hitherto enjoyed the enviable distinction of being supposed to possess the most gigantic pair of human hoofs this side of the line has now ‘knocked under’ to a juvenile […]. This promising youth […], stands 6ft. 4in. in his stockings, and his grass-hopper-crushers, which are real No. 19s measure as follows [...].
1891		’Sailors’ Lingo’ in Hants. Teleg. 21 Feb. 11/3: Shoes are ‘beetle crushers’.
1894		Savannah Courier (TN) 25 Oct. 1/2: Here’s where the cove has put off his botts [...] and a nice blooming pair of beetle crushers they are.
1896		Coburg Leader (Vic.) 18 Jan. 4/1: [T]he pavement is worn away with their great beatle-crushers [sic].
1902		Hilo Tribune (HI) 29 Aug. 5/5: This is not a Beetle Crusher.
1911		Sun (NY) 29 Oct. 28/2: He said as [...] he glanced at the thick boot soles of an Italian laborer [...] ‘Them’s beetle crushers’.
1918		N.Y. Tribune 3 Nov. 25/3: [picture caption of army boot] Beetle Crusher. American Mode.
1931		Framlingham Eve. News 24 Oct. 2: Slang terms which have been applied to the police are ‘cossacks,’ [...] and ‘crushers’. Have we not heard constables’ boots described as ‘beetle-crushers’.
1960		J. Havoc Early Havoc 231: [A] heavy-set leady wearing beetle-crushing shoes.
1967		A.P. Jephcott Time of One’s Own 43: They want you to wear big baggy trousers and a big knotted tie and big daft shoes which are called beatle [sic] crushers.
1980		J. McClure Spike Island (1981) 197: One of them said, ‘But we’re the Beatles!’ I said, ‘If yer don’t fok aff, I’ll put me beetle-crushers on you!’.
1986		T. Winton That Eye, The Sky 34: A couple of yobbos come in. Black T-shirts, black beetle-crushers.
1990		T. Winton Human Torpedo 95: He was a bit shocked to see all the black T-shirts and beetle-crushers.
2016		A. Wheatle Crongton Knights 71: He was wearing [...] his cockroach-crusher boots .

3. a horse with large feet.

1914

C. Holme Lonely Plough (1931) 121: That’s Stubbs on his beetle-crusher – Lapwing, he calls it!

4. (UK juv.) a police officer.

1959

I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 395: Nicknames current among boys [...] Beetle-crusher, Beat Basher, Bogey.

(UK juv.) bubble gum.

1959

I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 186: Bubble gum, the new fad [...] is known as ‘beetle fat’.

a fool; thus beetle-headed adj., stupid.

1592		Groundworke of Conny-catching Ch. 18: She saith that they be her children, but beetleheaded be the babes borne of such an abominable belly.
1600		Look About You xxiv: Leave your mocking, you were best, I’ll bob your beetle head.
1660		J. Tatham Rump II i: What beetle-headed fellow’s this.
1663		Head Hic et Ubique IV iii: Why thou Bog-trotting, Beetle-head.
1667		J. Lacey Sauny the Scot III i: An Idle, Careless, Beetle-headed Slave.
1675		Wycherley Country-Wife III ii: Yet he must be buzzing amongst ’em still, like other beetle-headed, liquorish drones.
1692		Oldys Female Gallant 1: Sir Beetlehead Gripely [...] was a Money Scrivener.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Beetle-headed, dull, stupid.
1793		Sporting Mag. Nov. III 107/2: You beetle-headed fool!
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1821		R. Waln Hermit in America on Visit to Phila. 2nd series 28: She was [...] Cribbage-faced—Beetle-headed—Bottle-headed—Buffle-headed,—and Chuckle-headed!!!
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1833		A. Greene Life and Adventures of Dr Dodimus Duckworth I 82: A good-for-nothing, misbegotten, half-brung-up, beetle-headed scamp o’ grace!
1849		Green-Mountain Freeman (Montpelier, VT) 12 Apr. 2/3: The King of prussia is as beetle-headed a German and ever made pipes.
1851		Dundee Courier 24 Sept. 2/5: Mr Young and his freiends may be beetle-headed blockheads and inaccessible to argument.
1861		Leeds Times 24 Aug. 5/2: After she had been fleeced [...] this beetle-headed Miss began to open her eyes to the startling fact that the Italian Adonis [...] merely wanted her money.
1868		‘Parliamentary Vade Mecum’ in Sydney Punch 14 Mar. 8/1: Adjectives [...] Beetle-headed.
1875		Pall Mall Gaz. 5 Oct. 1/1: Surely there is no pedantry so beetle-headed as to believe [etc.].
1880		Bristol Mercury 13 Feb. 6/3: Surely beetle-headed blundering could no further go.
1887		Newcastle Courant 24 June 6/3: Logger-headed fool! jolt head! and beetle-head knave!
1892		Dly Herald (Brownsville, TX) 31 Oct. 2/2: One of these little beetle-headed, yoe necked, clabberbrained fellows.
1896		G.F. Northall Warwickshire Word-Book 26: Beetle-headed. Wooden-headed, stupid.
1898		Kansas Agitator (Garnett, KS) 18 Nov. 1/2: It’s chairman, a beetle-headed bum [...] rattled around like a bean in a tin pail.
1900		Dly Journal (Salem, OR) 14 May 2/3: Cast your eyes upon a beetle-headed dunce.
1914		Tulsa Star (OK) 28 Feb. 3/5: If a man of my rare intelligence [...] can’t cut the mustard [...] what show has a beetle-headed henchman of Tom and Joe?
1934		D.L. Sayers Nine Tailors (1984) 182: What a beetle-headed cuckoo I am!
1948		J. Archibald ‘Klump a la Carte’ Popular Det. July 🌐 ‘Get lost, beetlehead!’ Satchelfoot snapped.
1959		(ref. to 1920s) G. Duffy Warden’s Wife 142: Where did you get the idea that prisoners are beetleheads?

(Anglo-Irish) stout beer.

1937–84

Partridge DSUE (1984) 66/1: —1935.

a shoe.

1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1937–84		Partridge DSUE (1984) 66/1: from ca. 1840.

an entomologist.

1873		Sl. Dict. 81: Beetle-Sticker, an entomologist.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

a constable in the Thames River police.

1894

H. Nevinson ‘The St. George of Rochester’ in Keating Working Class Stories of the 1890s (1971) 57: At last a perlice boat with two black-beetles and a water-rat as we calls the Thames perlice and a sergeant, they pick me up.

1. the proletariat.

1821		W.T. Moncrieff Tom and Jerry II vi: Tom, here’s a group of blackbeetles – do you see those lovely mendicants?
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 6: Black beetles – the lower order of people.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open [as cit. 1835].

2. Roman Catholic priests.

1959

P. Hansford-Johnson Unspeakable Skipton (1961) 27: I expect there are some queer places here, though it is full of black beetles.

(US) to be mad.

1909

Chickasha Dly Exp. (OK) 12 Aug. 4/3: Nix on the slang — it’s on the blink / [...] / The gink wqho slings it [...] has beetles in his bush league attic.

(Aus.) to lose one’s senses; be mad.

1910

Bulletin (Sydney) 3 Nov. 39/2: ’Ave you got beetles in yer arcade, Sam, or wot?