[syn: byssus, beard]
VERB (1)
1. go along the rim, like a beard around the chin;
- Example: "Houses bearded the top of the heights"
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Beard \Beard\ (b[=e]rd), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Bearded; p. pr. &
vb. n. Bearding.]
1. To take by the beard; to seize, pluck, or pull the beard
of (a man), in anger or contempt.
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2. To oppose to the face; to set at defiance.
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No admiral, bearded by these corrupt and dissolute
minions of the palace, dared to do more than mutter
something about a court martial. --Macaulay.
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3. To deprive of the gills; -- used only of oysters and
similar shellfish.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Beard \Beard\ (b[=e]rd), n. [OE. berd, AS. beard; akin to Fries.
berd, D. baard, G. bart, Lith. barzda, OSlav. brada, Pol.
broda, Russ. boroda, L. barba, W. barf. Cf. 1st Barb.]
[1913 Webster]
1. The hair that grows on the chin, lips, and adjacent parts
of the human face, chiefly of male adults.
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2. (Zool.)
(a) The long hairs about the face in animals, as in the
goat.
(b) The cluster of small feathers at the base of the beak
in some birds
(c) The appendages to the jaw in some Cetacea, and to the
mouth or jaws of some fishes.
(d) The byssus of certain shellfish, as the muscle.
(e) The gills of some bivalves, as the oyster.
(f) In insects, the hairs of the labial palpi of moths and
butterflies.
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3. (Bot.) Long or stiff hairs on a plant; the awn; as, the
beard of grain.
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4. A barb or sharp point of an arrow or other instrument,
projecting backward to prevent the head from being easily
drawn out.
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5. That part of the under side of a horse's lower jaw which
is above the chin, and bears the curb of a bridle.
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6. (Print.) That part of a type which is between the shoulder
of the shank and the face.
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7. An imposition; a trick. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
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Beard grass (Bot.), a coarse, perennial grass of different
species of the genus Andropogon.
To one's beard, to one's face; in open defiance.
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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
beard
n 1: the hair growing on the lower part of a man's face [syn:
beard, face fungus, whiskers]
2: a tuft or growth of hairs or bristles on certain plants such
as iris or grasses
3: a person who diverts suspicion from someone (especially a
woman who accompanies a male homosexual in order to conceal
his homosexuality)
4: hairy growth on or near the face of certain mammals
5: tuft of strong filaments by which e.g. a mussel makes itself
fast to a fixed surface [syn: byssus, beard]
v 1: go along the rim, like a beard around the chin; "Houses
bearded the top of the heights"
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
138 Moby Thesaurus words for "beard":
Vandyke, affront, ascender, back, bag, ballocks, balls, basket,
bastard type, beaver, bell the cat, belly, bevel, bid defiance,
bite the bullet, black letter, body, brave, brazen, brazen out,
breasts, bristles, call out, cap, capital, case, cervix, challenge,
clitoris, cod, cods, confront, counter, cullions, dare, defy,
descender, double-dare, down, em, en, face, face out,
face the music, face up, face up to, family jewels, fat-faced type,
feet, female organs, font, front, genitalia, genitals, goatee,
gonads, groove, imperial, italic, labia, labia majora,
labia minora, letter, ligature, lingam, lips, logotype, lower case,
majuscule, male organs, meat, meet, meet boldly, meet head-on,
minuscule, nick, nuts, nymphae, outdare, outface, ovary,
peach fuzz, penis, phallus, pi, pica, point, print, private parts,
privates, privy parts, pubic hair, pudenda, reproductive organs,
rocks, roman, run the gauntlet, sans serif, scream defiance,
script, scrotum, secondary sex characteristic, set at defiance,
sex organs, shank, shoulder, show fight, side whiskers, small cap,
small capital, speak out, speak up, spermary, stamp, stand up to,
stare down, stem, stubble, testes, testicles, tuft, type,
type body, type class, type lice, typecase, typeface, typefounders,
typefoundry, upper case, uterus, vagina, venture, vulva, whisker,
whiskers, womb, yoni
Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary:
Beard
The mode of wearing it was definitely prescribed to the Jews
(Lev. 19:27; 21:5). Hence the import of Ezekiel's (5:1-4)
description of the "razor" i.e., the agents of an angry
providence being used against the guilty nation of the Jews. It
was a part of a Jew's daily toilet to anoint his beard with oil
and perfume (Ps. 133:2). Beards were trimmed with the most
fastidious care (2 Sam. 19:24), and their neglet was an
indication of deep sorrow (Isa. 15:2; Jer. 41:5). The custom was
to shave or pluck off the hair as a sign of mourning (Isa. 50:6;
Jer. 48:37; Ezra 9:3). The beards of David's ambassadors were
cut off by hanun (2 Sam. 10:4) as a mark of indignity.
On the other hand, the Egyptians carefully shaved the hair off
their faces, and they compelled their slaves to do so also (Gen.
41:14).
The Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906):
BEARD, n. The hair that is commonly cut off by those who justly
execrate the absurd Chinese custom of shaving the head.