bead
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /biːd/
rhymes: -iːd
homophone: Bede
Forms: form: beads
Etymology: From Middle English bede (“a prayer”), also “a bead for counting prayers” in a peire of bedes (literally “a pair of beads”), from Old English bedu, bed, ġebed (“a request, entreaty, prayer”), from Proto-West Germanic *bedu, *bed, *gabed, from Proto-Germanic *bedō, *bedą.
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Gebäd (“prayer”), Cimbrian gapéet (“prayer”), Dutch gebed and bede (“prayer”), German Gebet (“prayer”), Low German Gebett (“prayer”), Luxembourgish Gebiet (“prayer”), Vilamovian gybāt (“prayer”).
Senses: examples: text: That he must believe in the Pope;—go to Mass;—cross himself;—tell his beads;—be a good Catholick, and that this, in all conscience, was enough to carry him to heaven.
ref: 1760, Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, Penguin, published 2003, page 115:
glosses: Prayer, later especially with a rosary.
examples: Holonym: prayer beads
synonyms: prayer bead
glosses: Each in a string of small balls making up the rosary or paternoster.
glosses: A small, round object.
A small, round object with a hole to allow it to be threaded on a cord or wire, particularly for decorative purposes.
examples: text: Similar studies of rats have employed four different intracranial resorbable, slow sustained release systems—surgical foam, a thermal gel depot, a microcapsule or biodegradable polymer beads.
ref: 2013 May-June, Charles T. Ambrose, “Alzheimer’s Disease”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 200:
glosses: A small, round object.
Various small, round solid objects.
examples: text: beads of sweat
glosses: A small, round object.
A small drop of water or other liquid.
glosses: A small, round object.
A bubble, in spirits.
examples: text: She drew a bead on the target and fired.
text: But then I had the [massive] flintlock by me for protection. ¶[…]The linen-press and a chest on the top of it formed, however, a very good gun-carriage; and, thus mounted, aim could be taken out of the window[…], and a 'bead' could be drawn upon Molly, the dairymaid, kissing the fogger behind the hedge, little dreaming that the deadly tube was levelled at them.
ref: 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:
glosses: A small, round object.
A small, round ball at the end of a barrel of a gun used for aiming.
examples: text: We now have a bead on the main technical issues for the project
glosses: A small, round object.
A small, round ball at the end of a barrel of a gun used for aiming.
Knowledge sufficient to direct one's activities to a purpose.
glosses: A ridge, band, or molding.
A rigid edge of a tire that mounts it on a wheel; tire bead.
topics: architecture
glosses: A ridge, band, or molding.
A narrow molding with semicircular section.
synonyms: beading
examples: text: the borax bead;  the iron bead, etc.
topics: chemistry
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: A glassy drop of molten flux, as borax or microcosmic salt, used as a solvent and color test for several mineral earths and oxides, as of iron, manganese, etc., before the blowpipe.
Hyponyms: sense: small, round, pierced object
word: hair pipe
Derived terms: sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: adder bead
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: anal beads
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: angle bead
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: Baily's beads
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: beadboard
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: bead breaker
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: beaded lacewing
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: beaded lizard
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: beader
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: beadery
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: bead fern
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: beadful
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: beadless
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: beadlet
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: bead lightning
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: beadlike
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: bead lily
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: beadmaker
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: beadmaking
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: bead maze
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: bead proof
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: bead-rattler
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: beadroll
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: bead seat
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: beadsman
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: bead tracer
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: bead tree
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: bead-tree
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: beadwork
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: beady
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: bedeman
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: bid beads
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: borax bead test
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: captive bead ring
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: casing bead
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: draw a bead on
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: drop one's beads
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: dzi bead
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: fairy-beads
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: Hail Mary bead
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: immunobead
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: iodobead
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: jet bead
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: jetbead
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: jumbie bead
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: lovebead
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: love-bead
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: love bead
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: macrobead
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: microbead
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: multibead
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: nanobead
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: parting bead
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: polybead
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: pony bead
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: prayer bead
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: prayer beads
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: read someone's beads
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: seed bead
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: St. Cuthbert's beads
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: sticky bead argument
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: stop bead
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: string of beads
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: take a bead on
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: tyre bead
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: water bead
sense: terms derived from bead (noun)
word: worry beads