beagle

CEFRB2

/ˈbiːɡəl/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    a small short-legged smooth-coated breed of hound.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A bailiff.

Examples

  • The friendly beagle chased the ball across the grassy park.

  • He has a foxhound beagle.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
3

Also pronounced

  • [ˈb̥iːɡəɫ]

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A person who snoops on others; a detective.

  2. A small short-legged smooth-coated scenthound, often tricolored and sometimes used for hunting hares. Its friendly disposition makes it suitable as a family pet.

  3. A small kind of shark.

More examples

In context

  • I want a beagle.

  • […] reading men who beagled for fresh air and exercise, impecunious hunting men who beagled for economy[…]

  • […]whereas burying a body in the wooded area beyond the backyard was the quickest way to make a Nassau County Police Department beagle look good.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The small brown and white blank wagged its tail excitedly as it sniffed the ground for hidden treats.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

Inherited from Middle English *begel (attested in the plural begles), of uncertain origin. Possibly from Middle French beegueule (“one who keeps their mouth open”), whence modern French bégueule (“a colloquial insult said to women of low status and accused of stupidity, who always have their mouths gaped or open; a prude”); from Old French beer, bayer (“to gape, gawk”) + Old French gueule (“gullet”). The modern French bigle (“beagle”) however is a borrowing from the English. Alternatively, a modification of Middle English bedel (“beadle”) in the sense of "constable, detective". The change of /t/, /d/ to /k/, /ɡ/ before /l/ is common; compare hurkle, variant of hurtelen (“to hurtle”), and in...