beetling

I could not see any cause for it, for the howling of the wolves had ceased altogether; but just then the moon, sailing through the black clouds, appeared behind the jagged crest of a beetling, pine-clad rock, and by its light I saw around us a ring of wolves, with white teeth and lolling red tongues, with long, sinewy limbs and shaggy hair.

And where the work of noir stories is often to strip away a veneer of goodness to show the venality beneath, to play in the upside-down areas where every cop is a criminal and all the sinners saints, something close to the opposite seems to be happening here: Beneath the machinations of what seems a thoroughly corrupt town that carries on, as Allegra says, “behind God’s back,” forces for good are beetling away.

Clive Pike, to my left, eyes beetling bigger than humanly possible, g-force ribbling his face.

Can you actually imagine yourself standing on the steps of Number 10 as prime minister rather than as a cabinet minister beetling in and out for meetings.

This beetling between England and Ireland would be repeated throughout his life.