Dictionary
Thesaurus
Reference
Translate
Web
Related Searches
on Ask.com
Synonyms
Nearby Entries
Bead - 7 dictionary results
Complete Collection
 Thousands of pieces in stock! Free shipping and free gift wrap.
 crystalclassics.com/Swarovski
Turquoise Beads
 Turquoise beads, roundels, nuggets, and much more at wholesale prices!
 www.transpacificgems.com
Sw Austrian Crystal Beads
 Great prices Austrian 5301 & Czech beads, crystals prisms, $5.75/100
 www.gspncrystal.com

bead

  [beed]
Use Bead in a Sentence
–noun
1. a small, usually round object of glass, wood, stone, or the like with a hole through it, often strung with others of its kind in necklaces, rosaries, etc.
2. beads,
a. a necklace of beads: You don't have your beads on this evening.
b. a rosary.
c. Obsolete. devotions; prayers.
3. any small globular or cylindrical body.
4. a drop of liquid: beads of moisture.
5. a bubble rising through effervescent liquid.
6. Usually, beads. a mass of such bubbles on the surface of a liquid.
7. the front sight of a rifle or gun.
8. a reinforced area of a rubber tire terminating the sidewall and fitting within the rim of a wheel.
9. Electricity. a glass, ceramic, or plastic insulator that contains and supports the inner conductor in a coaxial cable.
10. Chemistry. a globule of borax or some other flux, supported on a platinum wire, in which a small amount of some substance is heated in a flame as a test for its constituents.
11. Metallurgy. the rounded mass of refined metal obtained by cupellation.
12. Architecture, Furniture. a small molding having a convex circular section and, usually, a continuous cylindrical surface; astragal.
13. Welding. a continuous deposit of fused metal, either straight (stringer bead) or zigzag (weave bead).
–verb (used with object)
14. to form or cause to form beads or a bead on.
15. to ornament with beads.
16. Carpentry. to form a bead on (a piece).
–verb (used without object)
17. to form beads; form in beads or drops: perspiration beading on his forehead.
—Idioms
18. count, say, or tell one's beads, to say one's prayers, using rosary beads: There were a few old women counting their beads in the hushed silence of the chapel.
19. draw or get a bead on, to take careful aim at: The marksman drew a bead on his target.
Origin:
bef. 900; ME bede prayer, prayer bead (where, on a rosary each bead symbolizes a prayer, the word for the notion symbolized was transferred to the designating object), OE gebed prayer; akin to bid 1 , G Gebet

Related forms:
beadlike, adjective

Synonyms:
4. droplet, globule, blob, dot.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To Bead
Complete Collection
 Thousands of pieces in stock! Free shipping and free gift wrap.
 crystalclassics.com/Swarovski
Turquoise Beads
 Turquoise beads, roundels, nuggets, and much more at wholesale prices!
 www.transpacificgems.com
bead   (bēd)   
n.  
    1. A small, often round piece of material, such as glass, plastic, or wood, that is pierced for stringing or threading.
    2. beads A necklace made of such pieces.
    3. beads Roman Catholic Church A rosary.
    4. Obsolete A prayer. Often used in the plural.
    5. A drop of moisture: beads of sweat.
    6. A bubble of gas in a liquid.
    7. A small metal knob on the muzzle of a firearm, such as a rifle, used for sighting.
    8. A decoration consisting of a usually continuous series of small spherical shapes, as on a convex molding.
    9. Beading.
  2. A small, round object, especially:
    1. A drop of moisture: beads of sweat.
    2. A bubble of gas in a liquid.
    3. A small metal knob on the muzzle of a firearm, such as a rifle, used for sighting.
    4. A decoration consisting of a usually continuous series of small spherical shapes, as on a convex molding.
    5. Beading.
  3. A strip of material, usually wood, with one molded edge placed flush against the inner part of a door or window frame.
  4. Architecture
    1. A decoration consisting of a usually continuous series of small spherical shapes, as on a convex molding.
    2. Beading.
  5. A projecting rim or lip, as on a pneumatic tire.
  6. A line of continuously applied ductile material, such as solder or caulking compound.
  7. Chemistry A globule of fused borax or other flux used in a bead test.
tr. & intr.v.   bead·ed, bead·ing, beads
To furnish with or collect into beads.

[Middle English bede, rosary bead, prayer, from Old English bed, bedu, gebed, prayer; see gwhedh- in Indo-European roots.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source

Bead

Bead\, n. [OE. bede prayer, prayer bead, AS. bed, gebed, prayer; akin to D. bede, G. bitte, AS. biddan, to ask, bid, G. bitten to ask, and perh. to Gr. ? to persuade, L. fidere to trust. Beads are used by the Roman Catholics to count their prayers, one bead being dropped down a string every time a prayer is said. Cf. Sp. cuenta bead, fr. contar to count. See Bid, in to bid beads, and Bide.]

1. A prayer. [Obs.]

2. A little perforated ball, to be strung on a thread, and worn for ornament; or used in a rosary for counting prayers, as by Roman Catholics and Mohammedans, whence the phrases to tell beads, to at one's beads, to bid beads, etc., meaning, to be at prayer.

3. Any small globular body; as, (a) A bubble in spirits. (b) A drop of sweat or other liquid. "Cold beads of midnight dew." --Wordsworth. (c) A small knob of metal on a firearm, used for taking aim (whence the expression to draw a bead, for, to take aim). (d) (Arch.) A small molding of rounded surface, the section being usually an arc of a circle. It may be continuous, or broken into short embossments. (e) (Chem.) 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; as, the borax bead; the iron bead, etc.

Bead and butt (Carp.), framing in which the panels are flush, having beads stuck or run upon the two edges. --Knight.

Beat mold, a species of fungus or mold, the stems of which consist of single cells loosely jointed together so as to resemble a string of beads. [Written also bead mould.]

Bead tool, a cutting tool, having an edge curved so as to make beads or beading.

Bead tree (Bot.), a tree of the genus Melia, the best known species of which (M. azedarach), has blue flowers which are very fragrant, and berries which are poisonous.

Bead

Bead\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Beaded; p. pr. & vb. n. Beading.] To ornament with beads or beading.

Bead

Bead\, v. i. To form beadlike bubbles.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
Cite This Source
Language Translation for : Bead
Spanish: cuenta,
German: die Perle,
Japanese: ビーズ玉
More Translations »

bead 
1377, bede "prayer bead," from O.E. gebed "prayer," from P.Gmc. *beðan (cf. M.Du. bede, O.H.G. beta, Ger. bitte, Goth. bida). Shift in meaning came via beads threaded on a string to count prayers, and in phrases like to bid one's beads, to count one's beads. Ger. cognate Bitte is the usual word for conversational request "please." Also related to bid (O.E. biddan) and Goth. bidjan "to ask, pray." Sense transferred to "drop of liquid" 1596; to "small knob forming front sight of a gun" 1831 (Kentucky slang); hence draw a bead on "take aim at," 1841, U.S. colloquial.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source

bead

see draw a bead on.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
Cite This Source
Search another word or see Bead on Thesaurus | Reference
Sw Austrian Crystal Beads
 Great prices Austrian 5301 & Czech beads, crystals prisms, $5.75/100
 www.gspncrystal.com
Turquoise Beads
 Finest selection of Turquoise beads. Same day shipping.
 www.firemountaingems.com
Sensational Beads
 Be creative w/ our fantastic beads. Hurry - Spend $40 & Get $10 Off!
 www.OrientalTrading.com