beard

Facial hair on the chin, cheeks, jaw and neck.

The cluster of small feathers at the base of the beak in some birds.

• At this moment the cock began to play; he stuck out his beard, trailed his wings down by his legs, and made, with great solemnity and wavelike motions of his neck, a few steps forward on the branch, while he stuck up his tail and spread it

The appendages to the jaw in some cetaceans, and to the mouth or jaws of some fishes.

The byssus of certain shellfish.

The gills of some bivalves, such as the oyster.

The hairs of the labial palpi of moths and butterflies.

The long or stiff hairs on a plant; the awn.

• the beard of grain

Long, hairlike feathers that protrude from the chest of a turkey.

• While all toms—adult male turkeys—have beards, nearly 10 percent of hens also have one, albeit a much stubbier, wispier version.

A barb or sharp point of an arrow or other instrument, projecting backward to prevent the head from being easily drawn out.

The curved underside of an axehead, extending from the lower end of the cutting edge to the axehandle.

To grow hair on the chin and jaw.intransitiveobsolete

To boldly and bravely oppose or confront, often to the chagrin of the one being bearded.transitive

• Robin Hood is always shown as bearding the Sheriff of Nottingham.

To take by the beard; to seize, pluck, or pull the beard of (a man), in anger or contempt.transitive

To deprive (an oyster or similar shellfish) of the gills.transitive

Of bees, to accumulate together in a beard-like shape.intransitive

Of a gay man or woman: to accompany a gay person of the opposite sex in order to give the impression that they are heterosexual.ambitransitiveslang

• Lesbians and homosexual men bearding one another (i.e. providing each other with the public appearance of being heterosexual); […]
• Things got weird after I married Jiro. It's like everyone knows I'm a lesbian who is bearding for her gay best friend so we can be rich one day, but they don't want to be reminded of it.