Hypertext Webster Gateway: "Deathwatch"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Deathwatch \Death"watch`\ (?; 224), n.
1. (Zo["o]l.)
(a) A small beetle ({Anobium tessellatum} and other allied
species). By forcibly striking its head against
woodwork it makes a ticking sound, which is a call of
the sexes to each other, but has been imagined by
superstitious people to presage death.
(b) A small wingless insect, of the family {Psocid[ae]},
which makes a similar but fainter sound; -- called
also {deathtick}.
She is always seeing apparitions and hearing
deathwatches. --Addison.
I did not hear the dog howl, mother, or the
deathwatch beat. --Tennyson.
2. The guard set over a criminal before his execution.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
deathwatch
n 1: minute wingless psocopterous insects injurious to books and
papers [syn: {booklouse}, {book louse}, {Liposcelis
divinatorius}]
2: bores through wood making a ticking sound popularly thought
to presage death [syn: {deathwatch beetle}, {Xestobium
rufovillosum}]
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