1. The Devil; Satan.
2. One of the fallen angels in Milton's Paradise Lost. Beelzebub was next to Satan in power.
3. An evil spirit; a demon.

[Hebrew ba'al zəbûb, lord (of the) fly, alteration of ba'al zəbûl, lord prince.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.