oil beetle

1. 1.

   any of various beetles that exude an oily substance from the leg joints that deters enemies

   Broaderblister beetle

Questions about oil beetle

What does oil beetle mean?

oil beetle means "any of various beetles that exude an oily substance from the leg joints that deters enemies".

Is oil beetle a common word?

oil beetle is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.