BEARD, noun berd. [Latin barba.]

1. The hair that grows on the chin, lips and adjacent parts of the face, chiefly of male adults; hence a mark of virility. A gray beard long beard and reverend beard are terms for old age.

2. beard is sometimes used for the face, and to do a thing to a man's beard is to do it in defiance, or to his face.

3. The awn or sharp prickles on the ears of corn. But more technically, parallel hairs or a tuft of stiff hairs terminating the leaves of plants, a species of pubescence. By some authors the name is given to the lower lip of a ringent corol.

4. A barb or sharp point of an arrow, or other instrument, bent backward from the end to prevent its being easily drawn out.

5. The beard or chuck of a horse, is that part which bears the curb of a bridle, underneath the lower mandible and above the chin.

6. The rays of a comet, emitted towards that part of the heaven to which its proper motion seems to direct it.

7. The threads or hairs of an oyster, muscle or similar shell-fish, by which they fasten themselves to stones.

8. In insects, two small, oblong, fleshy bodies, placed just above the trunk, as in gnats, moths and butterflies.

BEARD, verb transitive berd. To take by the beard; to seize, pluck, or pull the beard in contempt or anger.

1. To oppose to the face; to set at defiance.

I have been bearded by boys.