Adjacent Words

Bean definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

BEAN, n. A name given to several kinds of pulse, or leguminous seeds, and the plants producing them. They belong to several genera, particularly Vicia, Phaseolus and Dolichos. The varieties most usually cultivated are, the horse bean, the mazagan, the kidney bean, the cranberry bean, the lima bean, the frost bean, etc. The stalk is erect or climbing, and the fruit generally roundish, oval or flat,and of various colors.
Malacca-beans. Anacardia, the fruit of a tree growing in Malabar, and other parts of the Indies. This fruit is of a shining black color, of the shape of a heart flattened, about an inch long, terminating at one end in an obtuse point, and at the other, adhering to a wrinkles stalk. In contains, within two shells, a kernel of a sweetish taste; and betwixt the shells is lodged a thick acrid juice.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: any of various edible seeds of plants of the family Leguminosae used for food [syn: bean, edible bean]
2: any of various seeds or fruits that are beans or resemble beans
3: any of various leguminous plants grown for their edible seeds and pods [syn: bean, bean plant]
4: informal terms for a human head [syn: attic, bean, bonce, noodle, noggin, dome] v
1: hit on the head, especially with a pitched baseball

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English bene, from Old English b?an; akin to Old High German b?na bean Date: before 12th century 1. a. broad bean b. the seed of any of various erect or climbing plants (as of the genera Phaseolus and Vigna) of the legume family other than the broad bean c. a plant bearing beans d. an immature bean pod used as a vegetable 2. a. a valueless item b. plural the least amount <didn't know beans about it> 3. any of various seeds or fruits that resemble beans or bean pods <coffee beans>; also a plant producing these 4. a. plural exuberance — used in the phrase full of beans b. plural nonsense, bunkum — used in the phrase full of beans 5. head, brain 6. a protuberance on the upper mandible of waterfowl — see duck illustration II. transitive verb Date: 1910 to strike (a person) on the head with an object

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 a any kind of leguminous plant with edible usu. kidney-shaped seeds in long pods. b one of these seeds. 2 a similar seed of coffee and other plants. 3 US sl. the head. 4 (in pl.; with neg.) US sl. anything at all (doesn't know beans about it). --v.tr. US sl. hit on the head. Phrases and idioms: bean curd jelly or paste made from beans, used esp. in Asian cookery. bean sprout a sprout of a bean seed, esp. of the mung bean, used as food. full of beans colloq. lively; in high spirits. not a bean Brit. sl. no money. old bean Brit. sl. a friendly form of address, usu. to a man. Etymology: OE bean f. Gmc

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Bean Bean (b[=e]n), n. [OE. bene, AS. be['a]n; akin to D. boon, G. bohne, OHG. p[=o]na, Icel. baun, Dan. b["o]nne, Sw. b["o]na, and perh. to Russ. bob, L. faba.] 1. (Bot.) A name given to the seed of certain leguminous herbs, chiefly of the genera Faba, Phaseolus, and Dolichos; also, to the herbs. Note: The origin and classification of many kinds are still doubtful. Among true beans are: the black-eyed bean and China bean, included in Dolichos Sinensis; black Egyptian bean or hyacinth bean, D. Lablab; the common haricot beans, kidney beans, string beans, and pole beans, all included in Phaseolus vulgaris; the lower bush bean, Ph. vulgaris, variety nanus; Lima bean, Ph. lunatus; Spanish bean and scarlet runner, Ph. maltiflorus; Windsor bean, the common bean of England, Faba vulgaris. As an article of food beans are classed with vegetables. 2. The popular name of other vegetable seeds or fruits, more or less resembling true beans. Bean aphis (Zo["o]l.), a plant louse (Aphis fab[ae]) which infests the bean plant. Bean fly (Zo["o]l.), a fly found on bean flowers. Bean goose (Zo["o]l.), a species of goose (Anser segetum). Bean weevil (Zo["o]l.), a small weevil that in the larval state destroys beans. The American species in Bruchus fab[ae]. Florida bean (Bot.), the seed of Mucuna urens, a West Indian plant. The seeds are washed up on the Florida shore, and are often polished and made into ornaments. Ignatius bean, or St. Ignatius's bean (Bot.), a species of Strychnos. Navy bean, the common dried white bean of commerce; probably so called because an important article of food in the navy. Pea bean, a very small and highly esteemed variety of the edible white bean; -- so called from its size. Sacred bean. See under Sacred. Screw bean. See under Screw. Sea bean. (a) Same as Florida bean. (b) A red bean of unknown species used for ornament. Tonquin bean, or Tonka bean, the fragrant seed of Dipteryx odorata, a leguminous tree. Vanilla bean. See under Vanilla.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(beans) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. Beans such as green beans, French beans, or broad beans are the seeds of a climbing plant or the long thin cases which contain those seeds. N-COUNT: usu pl, usu adj N 2. Beans such as soya beans and kidney beans are the dried seeds of a bean plant. N-COUNT: usu pl, usu n N 3. Beans such as coffee beans or cocoa beans are the seeds of plants that are used to produce coffee, cocoa, and chocolate. N-COUNT: usu pl, usu n N 4. If someone is full of beans, they are very lively and have a lot of energy and enthusiasm. Jem was full of beans after a long sleep. PHRASE: v-link PHR 5. If you spill the beans, you tell someone something that people have been trying to keep secret. PHRASE: V inflects

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

be'-an.

See BAEAN.

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

A guinea. Half bean; half a guinea.

Moby Thesaurus

Irish potato, Kraut, a continental, a curse, a damn, a darn, a hoot, algae, aubergine, autophyte, bagatelle, bauble, beans, belfry, bibelot, bit, bracken, brain, brass farthing, brow, brown algae, button, cabbage, cent, climber, conferva, confervoid, conk, creeper, crown, curio, diatom, dome, eggplant, encephalon, farce, farthing, feather, fern, fig, fleabite, folderol, fribble, frippery, fruits and vegetables, fucus, fungus, gaud, gewgaw, gimcrack, grapevine, gray matter, green algae, greens, gulfweed, hair, halfpenny, head, headpiece, herb, heterophyte, hill of beans, ivy, jest, joke, kelp, kickshaw, knickknack, knickknackery, legume, legumes, lentil, liana, lichen, liverwort, love apple, mad apple, minikin, mockery, mold, molehill, moss, mushroom, noddle, noggin, noodle, organ of thought, parasite, parasitic plant, pate, pea, peppercorn, perthophyte, phytoplankton, picayune, pieplant, pin, pinch of snuff, pinprick, planktonic algae, plant families, poll, potato, potherbs, produce, puffball, pulse, rap, red algae, red cent, rhubarb, ridge, rockweed, row of pins, rush, rust, saprophyte, sargasso, sargassum, sconce, sea lentil, sea moss, sea wrack, seat of thought, seaweed, sensation, sensorium, sensory, shit, smut, snap, sneeshing, sou, spud, straw, succulent, tater, toadstool, tomato, toy, trifle, trinket, triviality, tuppence, two cents, twopence, vegetables, vetch, vine, whim-wham, white potato, wort, wrack