Adjacent Words

Beard definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

BEARD, n. berd. [L.barba.]
1. The hair that grows on the chin,lips and adjacent parts of the face,chiefly of male adults; hence a mark of virility. A gray beard, long beard and reverend beard, are terms for old age.
2. Beard is sometimes used for the face, and to do a thing to a man's beard,is to do it in defiance, or to his face.
3. The awn or sharp prickles on the ears of corn. But more technically, parallel hairs or a tuft of stiff hairs terminating the leaves of plants, a species of pubescence. By some authors the name is given to the lower lip of a ringent corol.
4. A barb or sharp point of an arrow, or other instrument, bent backward from the end to prevent its being easily drawn out.
5. The beard or chuck of a horse, is that part which bears the curb of a bridle,underneath the lower mandible and above the chin.
6. The rays of a comet, emitted towards that part of the heaven to which its proper motion seems to direct it.
7. The threads or hairs of an oyster, muscle or similar shell-fish, by which they fasten themselves to stones.
8. In insects, two small, oblong, fleshy bodies, placed just above the trunk, as in gnats, moths and butterflies.
BEARD, v.t. berd. To take by the beard; to seize, pluck, or pull the beard, in contempt or anger.
1. To oppose to the face; to set at defiance.
I have been bearded by boys.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

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"

Merriam Webster's

I. biographical name Charles Austin 1874-1948 & his wife Mary 1876-1958 née Ritter American historians II. biographical name Daniel Carter 1850-1941 American painter, illustrator, & organizer of Boy Scouts in U.S.

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English berd, from Old English beard; akin to Old High German bart beard, Latin barba Date: before 12th century 1. the hair that grows on a man's face often excluding the mustache 2. a hairy or bristly appendage or tuft 3. front 7a • bearded adjective • beardedness noun • beardless adjective II. transitive verb Date: 15th century 1. to confront and oppose with boldness, resolution, and often effrontery ; defy 2. to furnish with a beard

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 hair growing on the chin and lower cheeks of the face. 2 a similar tuft or part on an animal (esp. a goat). 3 the awn of a grass, sheath of barley, etc. --v.tr. oppose openly; defy. Derivatives: bearded adj. beardless adj. Etymology: OE f. WG

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Beard Beard, 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. 2. To oppose to the gills; to set at defiance. No admiral, bearded by three corrupt and dissolute minions of the palace, dared to do more than mutter something about a court martial. --Macaulay. 3. To deprive of the gills; -- used only of oysters and similar shellfish.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Beard Beard, 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.] 1. The hair that grows on the chin, lips, and adjacent parts of the human face, chiefly of male adults. 2. (Zo["o]l.) (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. 3. (Bot.) Long or stiff hairs on a plant; the awn; as, the beard of grain. 4. A barb or sharp point of an arrow or other instrument, projecting backward to prevent the head from being easily drawn out. 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. 6. (Print.) That part of a type which is between the shoulder of the shank and the face. 7. An imposition; a trick. [Obs.] --Chaucer. 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.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(beards) A man's beard is the hair that grows on his chin and cheeks. He's decided to grow a beard. N-COUNT

Easton's Bible Dictionary

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).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

berd:

(1) Western Semites in general, according to the monuments, wore full round beards, to which they evidently devoted great care. The nomads of the desert, in distinction from the settled Semites, wore a clipped and pointed beard (see Jer 9:26: "all that have the corners of their hair cut off, that dwell in the wilderness"; and compare 25:23; 49:32, etc.).

(2) Long beards are found on Assyrian and Babylonian monuments and sculptures as a mark of the highest aristocracy (compare Egyptian monuments, especially representations by W. Max Muller, Asien und Europa, 140). It is not clear that it was ever so with the Jews. Yet it is significant that the Hebrew "elder" (zaqen) seems to have received his name from his long beard (compare bene barbatus).

(3) The view of some that it was customary among the Hebrews to shave the upper lip is considered by the best authorities as without foundation. The mustache (Hebrew sapham, "beard"), according to 2Sa 19:24, received regular "trimming" (thus English Versions of the Bible after the Vulgate, but the Hebrew is generic, not specific: "He had neither dressed his feet, nor trimmed his beard").

(4) In one case (1Sa 21:13,14) the neglect of the beard is set down as a sign of madness: "(He) let his spittle fall down upon his beard. Then said Achish, .... Lo, ye see the man is mad."

(5) It was common. Semitic custom to cut both hair and beard as a token of grief or distress. Isa 15:2, describing the heathen who have "gone up to the high places to weep," says "Moab waileth over Nebo, and over Medeba; on all their heads is baldness, every beard is cut off." Jeremiah (Je 41:5), describing the grief of the men of Samaria for their slain governor, Gedaliah, says, "There came men from .... Samaria (his sorrowing subjects) even four score men, having their beards shaven and their clothes rent," etc. And Amos, in his prophecy of the vision of the "basket of summer fruit" (Am 8:1 ff), makes Yahweh say to His people: "I will turn your feasts into mourning; .... I will bring sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head" (Am 8:10). On the other hand it was even more significant of great distress or fear to leave the beard untrimmed, as did Mephibosheth, the son of Saul, when he went to meet King David, in the crisis of his guilty failure to go up with the king according to his expectation: "He had neither dressed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes, from the day the king departed until the day he came home in peace." (Compare 1Sa 21:13,14; 2Sa 19:24.)

(6) Absalom's hair was cut only once a year, it would seem (2Sa 14:26; compare rules for priests, Levites, etc., Eze 44:20). But men then generally wore their hair longer than is customary or seemly with us (of So 5:2,11, "His locks are bushy, and black as a raven"). Later, in New Testament times, it was a disgrace for a man to wear long hair (1Co 11:6-15). To mutilate the beard of another was considered a great indignity (see 2Sa 10:4; compare Isa 50:6, "plucked off the hair"). The shaving of the head of a captive slave-girl who was to be married to her captor marked her change of condition and prospects (De 21:12; W. R. Smith, Kinship, 209).

LITERATURE.

Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians, II, 324, 349; Herod. i.195; ii.36; iii.12; Josephus, Antiquities, VIII, viii, 3; XVI, viii, 1; W. R. Smith, Kinship, 209; RS, 324; Wellhausen, Skizzen, III, 167,

George B. Eager

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. 1. Whiskers, hirsute appendage. 2. Guard. See barb. II. v. a. 1. Seize or pluck by the beard, pull one's beard. (In contempt.) 2. Defy, bid defiance to, oppose to the face.

Moby Thesaurus

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