Past tense of 'beetle,' meaning to move quickly or to overhang in a threatening way, like the protruding brow of a beetle.
From 'beetle' (the insect), used as a verb meaning 'to move quickly like a beetle' or 'to jut out like a beetle's head,' from Old English 'bitela,' plus past tense '-ed'.
Beetles move with such a distinctive scurrying motion that their name became a verb—'beetled' captures something about the jerky, purposeful speed that no other word quite expresses the same way.
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