beard

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to go along the rim, like a beard around the chin

   Houses bearded the top of the heights.

2. 2
   noun

   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.

3. 3
   noun

   The long or stiff hairs on a plant; the awn.

   the beard of grain

4. 4
   noun

   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.

5. 5
   noun

   A 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”.

6. 6
   verb

   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.

7. 7
   verb

   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.

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

8. 8
   noun

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

Etymology

PIE word *bʰardʰéh₂ From Middle English berd, bard, bærd, from Old English beard, from Proto-West Germanic *bard, from Proto-Germanic *bardaz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰardʰeh₂, *bʰh₂erdʰeh₂. Cognates Cognate with Scots beird (“beard”), Yola bearde (“beard”), North Frisian biard (“beard”), Saterland Frisian Boart (“beard”), West Frisian burd (“beard”), Bavarian Bårt (“beard”), Dutch baard (“beard”), German Bart (“beard”), German Low German and Luxembourgish Baart (“beard”), Vilamovian biöt (“beard”), Yiddish באָרד (bord, “beard”), Icelandic barð (“brim; edge, ridge”), Norwegian Bokmål bart…