Beard (bērd), 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
face; to set
at defiance.
No admiral,
bearded by these 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.
Beard (bērd), 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. (Zoöl.) (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.
Hear it pronounced