# beard

Pronunciation: say "BEERD" US /bɪɹd/, UK /bɪəd/

## Noun

1. A growth of hair on the chin, jaw and lower cheeks.
   - Simple: The hair that grows on a person's chin, cheeks, jaw and neck.
   - _He grew a beard over the winter and shaved it off in the spring._
   - _The old portraits show stern men with full beards and heavy coats._
2. A person who acts as someone's partner or companion to hide that person's real relationship, such as their homosexuality or an affair. *(slang)*
   - Simple: Someone who pretends to be a person's date or partner to hide that the person is gay or seeing someone else.
   - _For years the actress served as a beard for her closest friend, a closeted leading man._
   - _His agent told him to get a beard before the premiere._
4. A tuft or cluster of feathers on a bird's head, throat, or chest, such as on a grouse or turkey.
   - Simple: A group of feathers on a bird's face or chest that looks like a beard.
   - _The grouse raised the dark beard beneath its bill as it began to display._
   - _The hens' beards stood out against the pale feathers of their throats._
5. Long or stiff hairs on a plant, such as the bristly awns on an ear of grain.
   - Simple: Long or stiff hairs on a plant, like the bristles on an ear of grain.
   - _The beard on an ear of rye is longer and stiffer than on most wheat._
   - _The beards of wild oats twist as they dry, working the seed down into the soil._
7. The byssus of certain shellfish: the tuft of tough threads by which a mussel or similar mollusk anchors itself.
   - Simple: The tough hairy threads that a mussel or similar shellfish uses to hold on to rocks.
   - _Scrub the shells and tug the beard away with a sharp pull toward the hinge._
   - _The beards of farmed mussels are usually removed before the shellfish reach the store._
8. A stand-in who poses as a customer or companion, or acts as a go-between, on someone else's behalf. *(slang)*
   - Simple: Someone who acts as a fake customer or go-between so that another person can stay hidden.
   - _Rather than bid himself, the collector used a beard to buy the house at auction._
   - _Casinos watch for beards placing bets on behalf of banned players._

## Verb

3. Of a gay man or lesbian: to accompany a gay person of the opposite sex so that they pass as heterosexual. *(slang)*
   - Simple: To act as a straight-looking partner for a gay person of the opposite sex, while being gay yourself.
   - _In the studio era, actors would quietly beard one another to keep the gossip columns happy._
   - _He had been bearding for a closeted colleague so long that even his parents believed the romance._
6. To confront or oppose someone boldly and bravely, often to that person's annoyance.
   - Simple: To bravely stand up to someone or face them directly, even if it upsets them.
   - _She marched into the chairman's office to beard him over the layoffs._
   - _The old senator, bearded in his own committee room by a first-term member, turned purple with rage._

## Verb

9. To grow hair on the chin and jaw; to develop a beard. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To start to grow hair on the chin and jaw.

## Noun

10. In metal type, the part of a letter's body between the shoulder of the shank and the printing face. *(dated)*
   - Simple: The part of a metal printing letter between the top of the block and the raised face.

## Other meanings

- (noun) Growths that project from the jaw in some whales, and from the mouth or jaws in some fish.
- (verb) Of bees, to cluster together in a mass that hangs down like a beard.
- (noun) The gills of certain two-shelled mollusks, such as the oyster.
- (verb) To remove the gills from an oyster or a similar shellfish.
- (noun) The hairs growing on the labial palps of a moth or butterfly.
- (verb) To seize a man by the beard, or to pluck or pull it, in anger or contempt.
- (noun) A barb or backward-pointing spike on an arrowhead or similar tool that keeps the head from being pulled out easily.
- (noun) On an ax head, the curved lower edge that runs from the bottom of the blade back to the handle.
- (noun) The part of the underside of a horse's lower jaw, just above the chin, on which the curb of a bridle rests.

## Origin

From Middle English berd, from Old English beard, from Proto-West Germanic *bard and Proto-Germanic *bardaz (compare West Frisian burd, Dutch baard, German Bart). It is also related to Latin barba, Lithuanian barzda and Russian борода́ (borodá), and may go back to Proto-Indo-European *bʰardʰeh₂; it is a doublet of barb.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/beard (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).