bead

English

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 Dutch gebed and bede, German Gebet.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /biːd/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːd

Noun

bead (plural beads)

1. (archaic) Prayer, later especially with a rosary.
   • 1760, Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, Penguin, published 2003, page 115:

     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.

2. Each in a string of small balls making up the rosary or paternoster.
3. A small, round object.
   1. A small, round object with a hole to allow it to be threaded on a cord or wire, particularly for decorative purposes.
   2. Various small, round solid objects.
      • 2013 May-June, Charles T. Ambrose, “Alzheimer’s Disease”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 200:

        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.

   3. A small drop of water or other liquid.

      beads of sweat

   4. A bubble, in spirits.
   5. A small, round ball at the end of a barrel of a gun used for aiming.

      She drew a bead on the target and fired.

      • 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., , →OCLC:

        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.

      1. (by extension) Knowledge sufficient to direct one's activities to a purpose.

         We now have a bead on the main technical issues for the project

4. A ridge, band, or molding.
   1. A rigid edge of a tire that mounts it on a wheel; tire bead.
   2. (architecture) A narrow molding with semicircular section.

      Synonym: beading

5. (physical chemistry, dated) 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.

   the borax bead;  the iron bead, etc.

Hyponyms

• (small, round, pierced object): hair pipe

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

bead (third-person singular simple present beads, present participle beading, simple past and past participle beaded)

1. (intransitive) To form into a bead.

   The raindrops beaded on the car's waxed finish.

2. (transitive) To apply beads to.

   She spent the morning beading the gown.

3. (transitive) To form into a bead.

   He beaded some solder for the ends of the wire.

4. (transitive) To cause beads to form on (something).
   • 1941, Emily Carr, “Greenville”, in Klee Wyck:

     Only the hum of the miserable creatures stirred the heavy murk that beaded our foreheads with sweat as we pushed our way through it.

Anagrams

• Abed, abed, adeb, bade, baed

Hungarian

Etymology

be- +‎ ad

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):
• Hyphenation: be‧ad
• Rhymes: -ɒd

Verb

bead

1. (transitive) to hand in

   beadja a felmondását ― to hand in one's notice

2. (transitive) to give (medicine to someone)
3. (transitive) to submit, to present (a request)
4. (transitive) to file (a petition)

Conjugation

Derived terms

Further reading

• bead in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (‘The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN
• bead in Ittzés, Nóra (ed.). A magyar nyelv nagyszótára (‘A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2006–2031 (work in progress; published A–ez as of 2024)

Irish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bʲɛd̪ˠ/

Verb

bead

1. first-person singular future of bí

   Bead anseo nuair a thiocfaidh tú ar ais.

   I will be here when you come back.

Mutation

References

Old English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bæːɑ̯d/

Verb

bēad

1. first/third-person singular preterite indicative of bēodan