Definition of "beard" in English

noun

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.

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. In insects, the hairs of the labial palpi of moths and butterflies.

7. (botany) Long or stiff hairs on a plant; the awn.

   • the beard of grain

8. Long, hair-like feathers that protrude from the chest of a turkey

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. (printing, dated) That part of a type which is between the shoulder of the shank and the face.

13. (slang, originally gambling) A fake customer or companion; an intermediary.

verb

1. (intransitive, obsolete) To grow hair on the chin and jaw.

2. (transitive) To 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.

3. (transitive) To take by the beard; to seize, pluck, or pull the beard of (a man), in anger or contempt.

4. (transitive) To deprive (an oyster or similar shellfish) of the gills.

5. (intransitive, beekeeping) Of bees, to accumulate together in a beard-like shape.

6. (LGBTQ, slang, ambitransitive) 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.