Pronunciations (7)
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/bɪəd/
Pronunciation notes
- Received-Pronunciation
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[bɪːd]
Pronunciation notes
- Received-Pronunciation
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/bɪɹd/
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
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/biɚd/
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
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/bɜː(ɹ)d/
Pronunciation notes
- obsolete
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bɪəd
Pronunciation notes
- GB
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bɪɹd
Pronunciation notes
- US
Noun
Facial hair on the chin, cheeks, jaw and neck.
The cluster of small feathers at the base of the beak in some birds.
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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.
The appendages to the jaw in some cetaceans, and to the mouth or jaws of some fishes.
The byssus of certain shellfish.
The gills of some bivalves, such as the oyster.
The hairs of the labial palpi of moths and butterflies.
The long or stiff hairs on a plant; the awn.
- Examples
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the beard of grain
Long, hairlike feathers that protrude from the chest of a turkey.
- Examples
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While all toms—adult male turkeys—have beards, nearly 10 percent of hens also have one, albeit a much stubbier, wispier version.
A barb or sharp point of an arrow or other instrument, projecting backward to prevent the head from being easily drawn out.
The curved underside of an axehead, extending from the lower end of the cutting edge to the axehandle.
That part of the underside of a horse's lower jaw which is above the chin, and bears the curb of a bridle.
That part of a type which is between the shoulder of the shank and the face.
Usage- Dated
A fake customer or companion; an intermediary.
Usage- Slang
- Examples
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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”.
A fake customer or companion; an intermediary. One who helps to conceal infidelity in a monogamous relationship by acting as a cover.
Usage- Slang
- Examples
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What are you talking about, I should be the beard? I don't wanna be a beard.
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.
Usage- Slang
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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.
Charlotte: Smith is not gay. Miranda: Of course not. Charlotte: So this makes you his beard.
More examples (1)
In an interview with Net a Porter, Delevingne said that “one of the first things Harvey Weinstein ever said to me was, ‘You will never make it in this industry as a gay woman – get a beard.’”
Verb
To grow hair on the chin and jaw.
Usage- Intransitive
- Obsolete
To boldly and bravely oppose or confront, often to the chagrin of the one being bearded.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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Robin Hood is always shown as bearding the Sheriff of Nottingham.
Am I to be bearded in my own castle by an insolent monk?
More examples (4)
No admiral, bearded by these corrupt and dissolute minions of the palace, dared to do more than mutter something about a court martial.
Murphy was a choleric man with a sense of his own importance. He was not to be bearded thus in his own seat of office. He rose with a very red face.
We need all our operatives to insure the success of my plan to beard this Claus in his den...
. . . I bearded the judge in his chambers and told him that it shouldn't be allowed.
To take by the beard; to seize, pluck, or pull the beard of (a man), in anger or contempt.
Usage- Transitive
To deprive (an oyster or similar shellfish) of the gills.
Usage- Transitive
Of bees, to accumulate together in a beard-like shape.
Usage- Intransitive
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.
Usage- Transitive or intransitive
- Slang
- Examples
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Lesbians and homosexual men bearding one another (i.e. providing each other with the public appearance of being heterosexual); […]
More examples (1)
Things got weird after I married Jiro. It's like everyone knows I'm a lesbian who is bearding for her gay best friend so we can be rich one day, but they don't want to be reminded of it.
Noun
the hair growing on the lower part of a man's face
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
a tuft or growth of hairs or bristles on certain plants such as iris or grasses
a person who diverts suspicion from someone (especially a woman who accompanies a male homosexual in order to conceal his homosexuality)
hairy growth on or near the face of certain mammals
- Broader terms
tuft of strong filaments by which e.g. a mussel makes itself fast to a fixed surface
- Synonyms
Verb
go along the rim, like a beard around the chin
- Broader terms
- Examples
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Houses bearded the top of the heights