BEARD

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does beard mean? 

• BEARD (noun)
  The noun BEARD has 5 senses:

1. the hair growing on the lower part of a man's face

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

  Familiarity information: BEARD used as a noun is common.

• BEARD (verb)
  The verb BEARD has 1 sense:

1. go along the rim, like a beard around the chin

  Familiarity information: BEARD used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BEARD (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The hair growing on the lower part of a man's face

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Synonyms:

beard; face fungus; whiskers

Hypernyms ("beard" is a kind of...):

facial hair (hair on the face (especially on the face of a man))

Meronyms (parts of "beard"):

moustache; mustache (an unshaved growth of hair on the upper lip)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "beard"):

fuzz (the first beard of an adolescent boy)

imperial; imperial beard (a small tufted beard worn by Emperor Napoleon III)

beaver (a full beard)

goatee (a small chin beard trimmed to a point; named for its resemblance to a goat's beard)

stubble (short stiff hairs growing on a man's face when he has not shaved for a few days)

vandyke; vandyke beard (a short pointed beard (named after the artist Anthony Vandyke))

Attilio; soul patch (a small patch of facial hair just below the lower lip and above the chin)

Holonyms ("beard" is a part of...):

adult male body; man's body (the body of an adult man)

face; human face (the front of the human head from the forehead to the chin and ear to ear)

Derivation:

beard (go along the rim, like a beard around the chin)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A tuft or growth of hairs or bristles on certain plants such as iris or grasses

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Hypernyms ("beard" is a kind of...):

fuzz; hair; tomentum (filamentous hairlike growth on a plant)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "beard"):

awn (slender bristlelike appendage found on the bracts of grasses)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A person who diverts suspicion from someone (especially a woman who accompanies a male homosexual in order to conceal his homosexuality)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("beard" is a kind of...):

individual; mortal; person; somebody; someone; soul (a human being)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Hairy growth on or near the face of certain mammals

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("beard" is a kind of...):

hair (a covering for the body (or parts of it) consisting of a dense growth of threadlike structures (as on the human head); helps to prevent heat loss)

Holonyms ("beard" is a part of...):

caprine animal; goat (any of numerous agile ruminants related to sheep but having a beard and straight horns)

Derivation:

beard (go along the rim, like a beard around the chin)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Tuft of strong filaments by which e.g. a mussel makes itself fast to a fixed surface

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

beard; byssus

Hypernyms ("beard" is a kind of...):

fiber; fibre (a slender and greatly elongated substance capable of being spun into yarn)

• BEARD (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they beard    ... he / she / it beards   
Past simple: bearded   
Past participle: bearded   
-ing form: bearding   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Go along the rim, like a beard around the chin

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Context example:

Houses bearded the top of the heights

Hypernyms (to "beard" is one way to...):

rim (run around the rim of)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Derivation:

beard (hairy growth on or near the face of certain mammals)

beard (the hair growing on the lower part of a man's face)

 Context examples 

“They belong to King Grisly-beard, hadst thou taken him, they had all been thine.” “Ah! unlucky wretch that I am!” said she; “would that I had married King Grisly-beard!”

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

A mustache and beard add to the squaring off of the muzzle.

(Black Russian Terrier, NCI Thesaurus)

The Bouviers Des Flandres is a powerful dog with a massive and heavily-coated head with a thick beard and mustache and shaggy eyebrows.

(Bouviers Des Flandres, NCI Thesaurus)

He was simply what the porter described as a “medium-looking chap,” a man of fifty, beard grizzled, pale face, quietly dressed.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He was gray also, from his long beard to his rough boots, and he looked stern and solemn, and rarely spoke.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

The first man I saw was of a meagre aspect, with sooty hands and face, his hair and beard long, ragged, and singed in several places.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

She had never seen him unshaven, and the three days' growth of beard on his face was repulsive to her.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

In he walked, a middle-sized, dark-haired, dark-eyed, black-bearded man, with a touch of the Sheeny about his nose.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Briards are generally black, gray, or tawny and have a shaggy beard, eyebrows and mustache.

(Briard, NCI Thesaurus)

Dermatophytosis involving the stratum corneum of the skin of the scalp and beard area.

(Dermatophytosis of Scalp and Beard, NCI Thesaurus)