[beed] 
| 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,
|
| 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). |
| 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). |
| 17. | to form beads; form in beads or drops: perspiration beading on his forehead. |
| 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. |
| bead (bēd) n.
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.] |