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Beard

//bɪəd// name, noun, verb, slang

Definitions

Proper Noun

1
A surname transferred from the nickname.
2
A place name:; An unincorporated community in Warren Township, Clinton County, Indiana, United States.
3
A place name:; An unincorporated community in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, United States, named after Josiah Beard.
4
A place name:; A suburb of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia, named after ex-convict Timothy Beard.

Noun

1
Facial hair on the chin, cheeks, jaw and neck.
2
tuft of strong filaments by which e.g. a mussel makes itself fast to a fixed surface wordnet
3
The cluster of small feathers at the base of the beak in some birds.
"At this moment the cock began to play; he stuck out his beard, trailed his wings down by his legs, and made, with great solemnity and wavelike motions of his neck, a few steps forward on the branch, while he stuck up his tail and spread it out like a big wheel."
4
hairy growth on or near the face of certain mammals wordnet
5
The appendages to the jaw in some cetaceans, and to the mouth or jaws of some fishes.

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6
the hair growing on the lower part of a man's face wordnet
7
The byssus of certain shellfish.
8
a person who diverts suspicion from someone (especially a woman who accompanies a male homosexual in order to conceal his homosexuality) wordnet
9
The gills of some bivalves, such as the oyster.
10
a tuft or growth of hairs or bristles on certain plants such as iris or grasses wordnet
11
The hairs of the labial palpi of moths and butterflies.
12
The long or stiff hairs on a plant; the awn.
"the beard of grain"
13
Long, hairlike feathers that protrude from the chest of a turkey.
"While all toms—adult male turkeys—have beards, nearly 10 percent of hens also have one, albeit a much stubbier, wispier version."
14
A barb or sharp point of an arrow or other instrument, projecting backward to prevent the head from being easily drawn out.
15
The curved underside of an axehead, extending from the lower end of the cutting edge to the axehandle.
16
That part of the underside of a horse's lower jaw which is above the chin, and bears the curb of a bridle.
17
That part of a type which is between the shoulder of the shank and the face. dated
18
A fake customer or companion; an intermediary. slang
"To get his way, Roberts employed a bit of developer's cunning: rather than approach Galardi directly, he sent a friend, Alan Meyers, as a “beard”."
19
A fake customer or companion; an intermediary.; One who helps to conceal infidelity in a monogamous relationship by acting as a cover. slang
"What are you talking about, I should be the beard? I don't wanna be a beard."
20
A fake customer or companion; an intermediary.; A woman who accompanies a gay man, or a man who accompanies a lesbian, in order to give the impression that the person being accompanied is heterosexual. slang
"One could also speculate that Linda also served as Cole's shield (or "beard") against his possibly being disinherited by his disapproving (of sissies) millionaire grandfather and doting mom, both of whom wanted him to be a lawyer."

Verb

1
To grow hair on the chin and jaw. intransitive, obsolete
2
go along the rim, like a beard around the chin wordnet
3
To boldly and bravely oppose or confront, often to the chagrin of the one being bearded. transitive
"Robin Hood is always shown as bearding the Sheriff of Nottingham."
4
To take by the beard; to seize, pluck, or pull the beard of (a man), in anger or contempt. transitive
5
To deprive (an oyster or similar shellfish) of the gills. transitive

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6
Of bees, to accumulate together in a beard-like shape. intransitive
7
Of a gay man or woman: to accompany a gay person of the opposite sex in order to give the impression that they are heterosexual. ambitransitive, slang
"Lesbians and homosexual men bearding one another (i.e. providing each other with the public appearance of being heterosexual); […]"

Etymology

Etymology 1

PIE word *bʰardʰéh₂ From Middle English berd, bard, bærd, from Old English beard, from Proto-West Germanic *bard, from Proto-Germanic *bardaz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰardʰeh₂, *bʰh₂erdʰeh₂. Cognates Cognate with Scots beird (“beard”), Yola bearde (“beard”), North Frisian biard (“beard”), Saterland Frisian Boart (“beard”), West Frisian burd (“beard”), Bavarian Bårt (“beard”), Dutch baard (“beard”), German Bart (“beard”), German Low German and Luxembourgish Baart (“beard”), Vilamovian biöt (“beard”), Yiddish באָרד (bord, “beard”), Icelandic barð (“brim; edge, ridge”), Norwegian Bokmål bart (“moustache”), Norwegian Nynorsk bard, barde (“edge, rim”), bart (“moustache”), Crimean Gothic bars (“beard”); also Latin barba (“beard”), Latvian bārda (“beard”), Lithuanian barzda (“beard”), Belarusian барада́ (baradá, “beard”), Bulgarian and Macedonian брада́ (bradá, “beard; chin”), Czech, Slovak, and Slovene brada (“beard”), Russian and Ukrainian борода́ (borodá, “beard”), Serbo-Croatian бра́да, bráda (“beard”). Doublet of barb.

Etymology 2

Etymology 3

Originally a nickname for someone with a beard.

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