bead
/ˈbiːd/ noun, verb
Also a form of bede
- noun (archaic) Prayer, later especially with a rosary.
- noun Each in a string of small balls making up the rosary or paternoster.
- noun A small, round object with a hole to allow it to be threaded on a cord or wire, particularly for decorative purposes.
- noun Various small, round solid objects.
- noun A small drop of water or other liquid. “beads of sweat”
- noun A bubble, in spirits.
- noun 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.”
- noun (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”
- verb (intransitive) To form into a bead. “The raindrops beaded on the car's waxed finish.”
- verb (transitive) To apply beads to. “She spent the morning beading the gown.”
- verb (transitive) To form into a bead. “He beaded some solder for the ends of the wire.”
- verb (transitive) To cause beads to form on (something).
Synonyms
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 Saterland Frisian Gebäd (“prayer”), Cimbrian gapéet (“prayer”), Dutch gebed and bede (“prayer”), German Gebet (“prayer”), Low German Gebett (“prayer”), Luxembourgish Gebiet (“prayer”), Vilamovian gybāt (“prayer”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun A prayer. [Obs.]
- noun 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.
- verb To ornament with beads or beading.
- verb To form beadlike bubbles.
Etymology [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.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “bead”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details