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deathwatch beetle
(redirected from deathwatch)

    Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.07 sec.

deathwatch beetle

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Deathwatch beetle (Xestobium refuvillosum)
(credit: G. E. Hyde from The Natural History Photographic Agency—EB Inc.)
Borer insect (beetle species Xestobium refuvillosum) that tends to be small (less than 0.5 in., or 1–9 mm) and cylindrical. When disturbed, it usually pulls in its legs and plays dead. It makes a ticking or clicking sound by bumping its head or jaws against the sides of the tunnels it creates as it bores into old furniture and wood, a sound that, according to superstition, forecasts a death.



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Deathwatch, Up Periscope, and Survivor, as well as scripts for Perry Mason; he is also the brother of National Public Radio personality and author Bailey White.
How to Build a Tin Canoe by Purucker, Mary / Kliatt
There's a terminal deathwatch with every other sport.
IN A LEAGUE OF ITS OWN THE NATIONAL PASTIME HAS ALWAYS INSPIRED ... by Daily News (Los Angeles, CA)
1 DEATHWATCH Bertrand Tavernier's depressing projection of tomorrow's world gathered an international all-star cast in manky Glasgow in 1980--long before its cappuccino facelift.
Lucy McKenzie by Artforum International
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