beard

plural beards

1. Facial hair on the chin, cheeks, jaw and neck.
2. 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.

   1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 90

3. The appendages to the jaw in some cetaceans, and to the mouth or jaws of some fishes.
4. The byssus of certain shellfish.
5. The gills of some bivalves, such as the oyster.
6. biologyThe hairs of the labial palpi of moths and butterflies.
7. biologyThe long or stiff hairs on a plant; the awn.

   the beard of grain

8. 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.

   2022, Jenny McKee, “Let's Talk Turkey Beards”, in Audubon

9. A barb or sharp point of an arrow or other instrument, projecting backward to prevent the head from being easily drawn out.
10. The curved underside of an axehead, extending from the lower end of the cutting edge to the axehandle.
11. That part of the underside of a horse's lower jaw which is above the chin, and bears the curb of a bridle.
12. datedmediaThat part of a type which is between the shoulder of the shank and the face.
13. slangA fake customer or companion; an intermediary.

    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”.

    2024 February 3, Joshua Chaffin, “Glossy new neighbourhood rises from a seedy slice of Miami vice”, in FT Weekend, London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 10

    1. slangOne who helps to conceal infidelity in a monogamous relationship by acting as a cover.

       What are you talking about, I should be the beard? I don't wanna be a beard.

       1984, Woody Allen, Broadway Danny Rose, spoken by Danny Rose (Woody Allen)

    2. slangA 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.

       Charlotte: Smith is not gay. Miranda: Of course not. Charlotte: So this makes you his beard.

       2004 February 1, Aury Wallington, “The Cold War”, in Sex and the City, season 6, episode 17

       2 more examples

       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.

       1991 December 1, Rudy Grillo, “Who's The Top?”, in Gay Community News, volume 19, number 20, page 8

       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.’”

       2019 September 16, Harvey Weinstein, quotee, “Harvey Weinstein told Cara Delevingne to ‘get a beard’”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

present singular third person beards · participle present bearding · participle past bearded · past bearded

1. intransitiveobsoleteTo grow hair on the chin and jaw.
2. transitiveTo boldly and bravely oppose or confront, often to the chagrin of the one being bearded.

   Robin Hood is always shown as bearding the Sheriff of Nottingham.

   5 more examples

   Am I to be bearded in my own castle by an insolent monk?

   1765, Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto

   No admiral, bearded by these corrupt and dissolute minions of the palace, dared to do more than mutter something about a court martial.

   1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter III, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC

   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.

   1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019

   We need all our operatives to insure the success of my plan to beard this Claus in his den...

   1943 December 6, Crockett Johnson, Barnaby

   . . . I bearded the judge in his chambers and told him that it shouldn't be allowed.

   1963, Ross Macdonald, The Chill, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, page 92

3. transitiveTo take by the beard; to seize, pluck, or pull the beard of (a man), in anger or contempt.
4. transitiveTo deprive (an oyster or similar shellfish) of the gills.
5. intransitiveagricultureOf bees, to accumulate together in a beard-like shape.
6. ambitransitiveslangOf a gay man or woman: to accompany a gay person of the opposite sex in order to give the impression that they are heterosexual.

   Lesbians and homosexual men bearding one another (i.e. providing each other with the public appearance of being heterosexual); […]

   1993, David Michael Robinson, Mollies are Not the Only Fruit, page 39

   1 more example

   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.

   2017, Hildred Billings, Blown By An Inconvenient Wind

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