▪ I. bean, n.
(biːn)
Forms: 1–2 béan, 3–6 ben, 4–6 bene, been(e, (Sc. and north. bein, beyn), 6–7 beane, 6– bean. pl. beans; in 1 béana, 4 bene, benen, 4–6 benes, -ys.
[Common Teut.: OE. béan (fem.) = OHG. bôna, mod.G. bohne, MDu. bone, Du. boon, ON. baun:—OTeut. *baunâ (str. fem.); conjectured by Fick to be for an earlier babna, cogn. with L. faba, Slav. bobŭ, Old Prussian babo; but phonetic considerations render this doubtful.]
I. 1. A smooth, kidney-shaped, laterally flattened seed, borne in long pods by a leguminous plant, Faba vulgaris.
The garden variety, or Broad-bean, is used, in its green state, as a culinary vegetable, esp. in Britain by the poorer classes, as in the proverbial ‘beans and bacon’; Field- and Horse-beans, when ripened to a brownish-black colour, are used as food for horses and cattle, and have also been made into bean-meal, used for coarse bread.
| c 1000 Sax. Leechd. II. 84 Genim bean mela. c 1325 Coer de L. 6004 Whete & ooten, pesen and bene. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. vi. 184 Lete hem ete..benes and bren ybaken togideres. c 1394 P. Pl. Crede 762 A great bolle-full of benen were betere in his wombe. 1475 Bk. Noblesse 69 Benys, pesyn, and aveyn for horsmete. 1551 Turner Herbal i. 178 Beanes..are harde of digestion, and make troblesum dreames. 1620 Venner Via Recta i. 17 Bread made of Beanes is very drie. 1707 Lond. Gaz. No. 4357/4 At Ham..are to be sold, Garden Beans, Gosport-Beans. 1832 Veg. Subst. Food 218 In Barbary..stewed with oil and garlic, beans form..the principal food of persons of all classes. |
2. The cultivated plant that bears this seed; it has fragrant violet-tinted white flowers, whence the often-mentioned ‘fragrance of the bean-fields.’
| 940 Chart. Eadmund in Cod. Dipl. V. 265 Of þistelleaᵹe to beanleaᵹe. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. lxiv, Benes [ed. 1495 beenys] bereþ white floures. 1611 Cotgr. s.v. Febve, In Cuckoe-time when Beanes doe flower. 1728 Thomson Spring (R.) Where the breeze blows from yon extended field Of blossom'd beans. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. II. i. viii. 51 It will grow verily, like the Boy's Bean, in the Fairy-Tale, heaven-high. |
3. The plant and seed of the allied genus
Phaseolus, of which the best-known species are the French, Kidney, or Haricot Bean (
P. vulgaris), and Scarlet Runner (
P. multiflorus). The unripe pods of both, and the ripe seeds of the former, are used as culinary vegetables.
(
Navy bean: the dried haricot.
pea bean: a small variety of it.)
| 1548 Turner Names of Herbs (1881) 75 Kydney beanes..or arber beanes, because they serue to couer an arber for the tyme of Summer. 1562 ― Herbal ii. 140 b, The vertues of Kidney beanes. The fruyt is sodden wyth the sede, and it is eaten after the maner of a wurt or eatable herbe, as sperage is eaten. 1632 Sherwood s.v. Bean, French, or Romane Beanes. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. II. v. ix. 302 She who has quietly shelled French-beans for her dinner. |
4. Name given to the seeds of other plants, usually from some resemblance in shape to the common bean;
e.g. Queensland or
Leichhardt's bean, Australian names for a tall climbing leguminous plant
Entada scandens, bearing long scimitar-shaped pods, which are used to make match-boxes, snuff-boxes, etc.: the seed is also called
match-box bean (see
match n.2 5) and
scimitar-pod (see
scimitar 3);
Egyptian or
Pythagorean bean, the seed of the Lotus (
Nelumbium speciosum);
bean of Molucca, seed of
Guilandina Bonducella;
bean of St. Ignatius, seed of
Strychnos amara;
Tonka bean, the perfumed seed of
Dipterix odorata; so too
coffee-bean, etc. See also buck-, locust-bean.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. lxiv. (1495) 641 Beenys growe in Egypte..wyth a heed as a Popye and therin beenes ben closid: and that heed is red as a Rose. 1484 Caxton Curiall 6 The benes of Pictagoras..gafe better sauour. 1551 Turner Herbal i. 123 The beane of Egipt is..astryngent. 1611 Cotgr., Anacarde, th' East-Indian fruit called Anacardium, or Beane of Malaca. 1830 Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. 215 The St. Ignatius's bean..is prescribed by the native practitioners of India in cholera. c 1865 Circ. Sc. I. 351/1 The organic acids..of the coffee-beans. 1889 J. H. Maiden Useful Native Plants Australia 175 Entada scandens..‘Queensland Bean’. ‘Leichhardt Bean’. |
5. a. Any object resembling a bean in shape.
| 1561 Hollybush Hom. Apoth. 38 b, Take the beanes or hinderfallinges of Goates. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts 215 The dryed beans of a Cutle fish. 1881 Raymond Mining Gloss., Beans (Newcastle), small coals. |
b. The head.
slang (
orig. U.S.).
bean ball Baseball, a ball pitched at the batter's head.
| c 1905 C. Dryden Champion Athletics 16 While pitching Mr. Bender places much reliance on the bean ball. 1908 H. Green Maison de Shine 130 Pop swung on a guy an' come near knockin' his bean offa him. 1910 Evers & Fullerton Touching Second vi. 92 One of the greatest and most effective balls pitched is the ‘bean ball’. ‘Bean’ is baseball for ‘head’. 1912 A. H. Lewis Apaches N.Y. 20 Beat it, before I bump me black-jack off your bean! 1923 R. D. Paine Comr. Rolling Ocean x. 168 If these Dutchmen get nasty, bang their blighted beans together. 1924 Wodehouse Bill the Conqueror ii. 63 Have I got to clump you one on the side of the bean? |
6. Literary and proverbial uses:—
a. in reference to a bean's small value;
cf. straw.
| 1297 R. Glouc. 497 Al nas wurth a bene. c 1325 Poem temp. Edw. II, xlvii, No rich man..dredeth God The worth of a bean. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. iii. 141 (Wright), To be corsed in consistorie She counted noght a bene [v.r. russhe]. 1413 Lydg. Pylgr. Sowle i. xv. (1483) 9 Al my wyt auayleth nought a bene. 1548 Hall Chron. (1809) 690 Thei set not by the Frenche Kyng one bene. 1656 Hobbes Liberty etc. (1841) 426 But all this will not advantage his cause the black of a bean. |
b. in reference to the former use of beans in balloting.
| 1580 North Plutarch (1676) 272 He was one year Mayor, or Provost of Athens..He came to it by drawing of the Bean. 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 15 Abstaine from beanes, i.e. Intermeddle not in the affaires of State. 1660 Milton Free Commw. Wks. 1851 438 To convey each Man his bean or ballot into the Box. |
c. in reference to the custom of appointing as King of the company on Twelfth-night, the man in whose portion of the cake the bean was found. [Lauder's reference appears to be to this, though he seems to have confounded the 16th c.
Eng. bean (
bɛːn) with his own
Sc. bane ‘bone.’]
| 1556 Lauder Tractate (1864) 29 Thir kyngs þai ar bot kyngs of bane; And schort wyl heir þare tyme be gane. 1592 Sp. at Sudely 8 in Nichols Progr. Q. Eliz. II, Cut the cake: who hath the beane shall be kinge; and where the peaze is she shall be quene. 1648 Herrick Hesper. 376 (N.) Beane's the king of the sport. 1853 A. Soyer Pantroph. 55 The cake was often full of raisins among which one bean and one pea were introduced. |
d. in proverbial expressions.
| 1562 J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 24 Hunger makth hard beanes sweete. Ibid. 56 Alwaie the bygger eateth the beane. 1568 Marr. Wit & Wisd. 45 (N.) It is not for idlenis that men sowe beanes in the wind [i.e. labour in vain]. a 1624 Bp. M. Smith Serm. (1632) 178 Euery Beane hath his blacke. 1830 Galt Laurie T. (1849) II. i. 42 Few men who better knew how many blue beans it takes to make five. 1886 Elworthy W. Somerset Word-Bk. 51 He knows how many beans make five, is a very common description of a cute, clever fellow. 1898 in M. Beerbohm Around Theatres (1924) I. 25 You say you've never heard How many beans make five? It's time you knew a thing or two—You don't know you're alive! 1958 ‘A. Gilbert’ Death against Clock vi. 86 Mr. Crook knew how many beans make five. |
e. Slang phrases:
not to know beans (
U.S.): not to know something, to be not well informed;
not to care beans (
U.S.), not to care at all;
a hill of beans (
orig. U.S.): a thing of little value (
cf. sense 6 a);
to spill the beans (see
spill v.
1);
to be full of beans: to be full of energy, and in high spirits (
cf. beany a. 1) (see also
quot. 1874);
to give (a person) beans (
orig. U.S.): to deal severely with, to punish heavily; so
to get beans;
old bean (
cf. old a. 8 a), a familiar form of address.
| 1833 A. Greene Life & Adv. D. Duckworth II. 66 He don't know beans. 1855 Yale Lit. Mag. XX. 192 (Th.), Whatever he knows of Euclid and Greek, In Latin he don't know beans. 1857 Knickerbocker Feb. XLIX. 138 (Th.), I don't care beans for the railroad. 1863 ‘E. Kirke’ My Southern Friends v. 80, I..karn't take Preston's note—'taint wuth a hill o' beans. 1901 Harben Westerfelt 5 He didn't care a hill o' beans fer no gal. 1926 D. H. Lawrence Let. 4 Jan. (1962) II. 876 Saying my say and seeing other people sup it up doesn't amount to a hill o' beans, as far as I go. |
| 1854 Surtees Handley Cross xxxii. 254 'Ounds, 'osses, and men, are in a glorious state of excitement! Full o' beans and benevolence! 1874 Hotten Slang Dict. 171 Full of beans, arrogant, purseproud. A person whom sudden prosperity has made offensive and conceited, is said to be too ‘full of beans’. Originally stable slang. 1875 Disraeli Let. 20 Aug. in Lett. to Lady Bradford (1929) I. xvi. 275 The Sultan..was full of beans. 1911 Galsworthy Patrician i. x, Versatile, ‘full of beans’. 1927 J. Elder Thomasina Toddy xxiii. 226 We start off—oh, full of beans—and then we stop. |
| 1835 in Amer. Speech (1965) XL. 127, I pose you heard ob de battle New Orleans, Whare Ole Gineral Jackson gib de British Beans. 1892 Punch 24 Sept. 133 Bad enough if you 'ave to wolf one, but it fair gives yer beans when 'tis two. 1893 Pick-me-up 5 Aug. 302 He would get beans at Bedford. 1900 Daily News 5 June 3/4 We started shelling them in the open, and gave them beans. 1914 Evening News 29 Sept. 2/2 We can't get them in the open, only on very rare occasions, and when we do, by gum, they don't half get beans! 1917 ‘Contact’ Airman's Outings 231 Chorus—‘Goodnight, old bean.’ 1918 Blighty Christmas No. 27 ‘What made you join the air service?’ ‘No earthly reason, old bean!’ 1920 Punch 1 Sept. 168/1 The anxiety of the ‘Bewildered Parent’ who complains of the child of two and a-half years who addressed her learned parent as ‘Old bean’. 1946 Wodehouse Joy in Morning xvii. 145 He wanted to give me beans, but Florence wouldn't let him. She said ‘Father you are not to touch him. It was a pure misunderstanding.’ 1955 J. Thomas No Banners xxix. 286, I say, old bean, let's stick together. |
f. Formerly, a sovereign or a guinea; now only in phraseological use, a coin, a bit of money (
not a bean, no money whatever, not a cent).
slang.| 1811 Lex. Balatr., Bean, a guinea. 1834 Ainsworth Rookwood iii. vi, As yellow as a bean. 1837 Ibid. (rev. ed.) xxviii. 245 Offering a bean to half a quid (in other words, a guinea to a half-guinea). 1885 D. C. Murray Rainbow Gold v. vi, ‘Here's some of the beans,’ he continued figuratively, as he drew five sovereigns from the same pocket. 1928 Galsworthy Swan Song ii. iv, They..never saved a bean, having no beans to save. 1928 D. L. Sayers Unpleasantness at Bellona Club iii, None of the Fentimans ever had a bean, as I believe one says nowadays. |
II. attrib. and
Comb. 7. General relations:
a. objective with agent-noun or
vbl. n., as
bean-setter,
bean-setting;
b. instrumental, as
bean-election,
bean-fed (1589);
c. similative, as
bean-ore,
bean-shaped;
d. attrib. (of the seed), as
bean-bread,
bean-broth,
bean-corn,
bean-diet,
bean-flour,
bean-meal (
a 1000),
bean-porridge,
bean-soup,
bean-water; (of the plant), as
bean-cod (
a 1000),
bean-field,
bean-flower,
bean-haulm,
bean-honey,
bean-husk,
bean-land [
OE. bēan-land],
bean-plant,
bean-plot,
bean-pod,
bean-rick,
bean-row,
bean-season,
bean-seed [
OE. bēan-sǣd],
bean-stack,
bean-stubble,
bean-weevil,
bean-wood.
| c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 61 Þei myȝtten vnneþe before haue *bene-bred & watir or feble ale. |
| 1701 J. Cunningham in Phil. Trans. XXIII. 1207 *Bean, or Mandarin Broth..made of the Seed of Sesamum. |
| c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. iv. 110 Two basketfull of *bene chaf. |
| 1820 T. Mitchell Aristoph. I. 161 One much giv'n To a *bean-diet. |
| 1820 Edin. Rev. XXXIV. 303 The folly of the *bean-election. |
| 1589 R. Harvey Pl. Perc. (1860) 34 Forehorse of my *beane⁓fed Teeme. |
| 1870 Morris Earthly Par. I. ii. 454 Thy soft breezes blow Sweet with the scent of *beanfields far away. |
| 1610 Healey St. Aug. City of God 164 Brutus..kept her feast..with *beane-flowre, and bacon. a 1661 B. Holyday Juvenal (1673) 25 The distilled water of bean-flowers. |
| 1744 W. Ellis Mod. Husbandm. Jan. iv. 46 Keeping the *Bean Land clear of the Thistle. 1960 Times 5 July Agric. Suppl. iii/4 The traditional wheat and beanlands—now usually minus the beans—no longer produce the highest yields. |
| c 1000 Sax. Leechd. II. 84 Genim *Bean mela. 1847 Gard. Chron. 144 The fitness of Bean-meal for cheap bread. |
| 1733 W. Ellis Chiltern & Vale Farm. xli. 348 Here is free access even to the minutest part of the Stalk-blossom or *Bean-pod. 1913 D. H. Lawrence Love Poems 37 You..who fall to earth At last like a bean-pod. |
| 1821 R. B. Thomas Farmer's Almanack 1822 2–6 June, Uncle Jeremy..never turned up his nose at a bowl of *bean-porridge. 1878 B. F. Taylor Between Gates 286 Two days more would..ripen bean-porridge to the fine perfection of ‘nine days old’. 1890 Yeats Lake Isle of Innisfree i, Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee. |
| 1677 A. Yarranton Engl. Improv. 18 His Creditors crowd to him as Pigs do..to a *Bean and Peas Rick. |
| 1744 W. Ellis Mod. Husbandm. Jan. iv. 44 They begin..to sow their *Bean Seed in two Forms or Methods. 1934 Haldane & Huxley Animal Biol. x. 218 The weights of bean-seeds. |
| 1824 Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. (1863) 25 Troops of stooping *bean-setters. |
| Ibid. 26 What work *bean-setting is! |
| 1836–9 Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. II. 530/2 A kidney or *bean-shaped hole called foramen ovale. |
| 1837 J. C. Neal Charcoal Sk. (1838) 98 Hollering oysters and *bean soup has guv' me a splendid voice. 1856 Kane Arct. Exp. II. xvi. 169 A stock of concentrated bean-soup was cooked. |
| 1824 Miss Mitford Village Ser. iii. (1863) 91 The obstinate bird ran away behind a *bean-stack. |
| 1743 W. Ellis Mod. Husbandm. June iii. 20 To prepare a *Bean Stubble for Turneps. 1833 Ridgemont Farm Rep. in Brit. Husbandry (1840) III. i. 138. The process of cultivation as thus described on fallow lands, is pursued in the same manner when the wheat has been sown on..a bean-stubble. |
| 1870 in Mass. Agric. Rep. i. 370, I sent specimens of the *bean weevil..to Dr. G. A. Horn..who pronounces it to be..a native species (B. varicornis of Leconte). 1959 E. F. Linssen Beetles Brit. Isles II. 176 (title) Phytophaga, Bruchidae—Pea ‘Weevils’ and Bean ‘Weevils’. |
| 1585 Jas. I Ess. Poesie 68 Some bucklit on a *benvvod, and some on a bene. |
e. in the names of various machines for harvesting field beans and preparing them for use, as
bean-harvester,
bean-mill,
bean-sheller,
bean-thresher.
| 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, Bean-mill. a 1877 Knight Dict. Mech. 257/2 Bean-harvester..Bean-sheller. |
8. Special combinations:
bean-bag, (
a) a small bag filled with beans, used
esp. in children's games; (
b)
orig. U.S., a chair consisting of a large bag partially filled with small plastic or polystyrene ‘beads’, which moulds itself to the shape of the user; also,
bean-bag chair;
bean-belly, a great eater of beans, a nickname of dwellers in Leicestershire;
bean-brush, the stubble of beans;
bean-butter, a dish made from unshelled beans;
bean cake, a material consisting of compressed beans, or some substitute, deprived of oil, used in China as a food and fertilizer;
bean-caper, English name of the genus
Zygophyllum, South African plants with fleshy leaves and flowerbuds used as capers;
† bean-cod, a bean-pod; also applied to a kind of river boat in use in Portugal;
bean-crake, local name of the Corncrake;
bean curd,
paste, a thick jelly or paste made from beans, eaten in north China and adjacent countries;
bean-dolphin, the aphis or plant-louse of the bean;
bean-fed a. fig., living on the best of everything;
bean-fly, a beautiful insect, of pale purple colour, found on beans;
bean-hull (
Sc. hool), a bean-pod;
bean metal Salt-mining, marl in the form of granules (
cf. beany metal,
s.v. beany a. 2);
bean-mouse, name given to the Long-tailed Field-mouse;
bean oil, oil expressed from beans in the manufacture of bean cake, used as an illuminant;
bean-pole,
-stick, (
-wood,
obs.), one used for beans to twine round,
fig. a lanky fellow;
bean-shatter, ? bird-scarer;
bean-shooter U.S., ‘a toy for shooting beans, shot, or other small missiles; a pea-shooter’ (
Cent. Dict. 1889);
bean-shot copper, that obtained in rounded grains, by pouring it, when melted, into hot water;
bean sprouts n. pl., the edible sprouting seeds of any of several varieties of legume (
esp. the mung bean), used cooked or raw,
orig. in Chinese cookery;
occas. in
sing.;
bean-stalk, the stem of the bean-plant: so called in the fairy-tale of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’;
bean-straw, the dried stems of the bean-plant;
bean-vine, common name of
Phaseolus diversifolius. See also
bean-feast, -goose, -tree, -trefoil.
| 1871 L. M. Alcott Little Men xxi. 321 A spirited exhibition of gymnastics..there was some danger of his..sending his *bean-bags whizzing among the audience. 1895 Kipling Day's Work (1898) xiii. 361 Here are your bean-bags for the Ladies' Competition. 1929 E. Bowen Last September x. 122 At school sports; in a team race, one of those things with bean bags. 1968 Guardian 19 Apr. 1/1 The children, all receiving free meals, hurled beanbags at the women serving them. 1969 Better Homes & Gardens (U.S.) Nov. 129/3 Bean Bag chair. Upholstered in black Arpel and filled with polystyrene beads. 1975 ‘M. Collins’ Blue Death x. 67 She sat cross-legged under her robe on a beanbag, like a child in a big blanket. 1977 Times 28 July 9/6 Trevor Baxter's gay Bishop, reclining on a bean-bag while oozing appreciation of Simon and Garfunkel, and executing a sumptuous return to episcopal protocol, is as hilarious as ever. 1986 N.Y. Times 28 Aug. c1/4, I remember thinking that one day there would be a New Yorker cartoon in which you walked into an antique store and looked at beanbag chairs and water beds. |
| 1659 E. Leigh Eng. Descr. 114 Leicestershire..yeeldeth great abundance of Peas and Beans..insomuch that there is an old by-word..Leicestershire *Bean-Belly. |
| 1677 Plot Oxfordsh. 240 Ploughing in the *bean-brush at All-Saints. |
| 1552 Huloet, *Beane butter, conchis. |
| 1887 Encycl. Brit. XXII. 733/2 *Bean-cake..is also imported in large quantities from New-chwang, Chefoo [etc.]. |
| 1597 Gerard Herball ii. cccxxxii. 827 Called after the Latine *Beane Caper. c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Luke xv. 16 His wambe ᵹefyllan of þam bean-coddum [v.r. bien-coddun; Lindisf. G. bean-bælᵹum; Hatton G. bean-coddan.] |
| 1615 Markham Eng. Housew. ii. ii. (1668) 52 A good simple Sallet is Camphire, *Bean cods, Sparagus, and Cucumbers. 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1789), Bean-cod, a small fishing-vessel..extremely sharp forward, having its stem bent inward above into a great curve. |
| 1909 Webster, *Bean curd. 1967 O. Wynd Walk Softly, Men Praying vii. 110 The cry of the bean-curd seller. |
| 1889 Kipling From Sea to Sea vi, in Wks. (1900) I. 289 The *bean-fed, well-groomed subaltern with the light coat and fox-terrier. |
| 1647 R. Stapylton Juvenal 259 Give me a *beane-hull. 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. xviii, He shall hide himself in a bean-hool if he remains on Scottish ground without my finding him. |
| 1892 Cornh. Mag. Sept. 263 A shaft is sunk till the ‘flag’ or *‘bean metal’ has been pierced. |
| 1766 Pennant Zool. (1768) I. 103 They are called *bean-mice from the havoke they make among beans when first sown. |
| 1908 Westm. Gaz. 15 Oct. 13/2 According to reports from Chefoo,..*Bean-oil is giving place to kerosene. |
| 1904 R. J. Farrer Garden of Asia 146 Buns stuffed with the cloying mustiness of *bean-paste. |
| 1798 T. B. Hazard Nailer Tom's Diary 10 May (1930) 210/2, I dug{supd} up Dung for to Put on the Garden and gott *Bean and Pee Poles. 1837 Haliburton Clockm. (1862) 137 Mr. Jehiel, a bean-pole of a lawyer. 1900 E. Bruncken N. Amer. Forests 61 Hop poles, bean poles, Christmas trees. |
| 1632 Chapman & Shirley Ball iv. i, To fright away crows, and keep the corn, *beanshatter. |
| 1890 Congress. Rec. Mar. 1920/1 Some boy, with a *bean-shooter..struck Mr. Benjamin. |
| 1921 China Med. Jrnl. XXXV. 428 The mung *bean sprout..has a larger calcium content than the original bean. 1922 Jrnl. Home Econ. XIV. 65 The soybean..is the source of a large number of products... The most important are the bean milk, bean curd, bean sauce (soy), bean sprouts, bean oil and bean cake. 1958 Catal. County Stores (Taunton) June 16 Chinese..Bean sprouts..a tin 1/7½, 2/4. 1984 M. Polunin New Cookbk. 18 Mustard and cress and beansprouts have the advantage that they are growing—and maintaining their food value—right up to the moment you eat them. |
| ? c 1800 (title) The Surprising History of Jack and the *Bean Stalk. 1871 M. Collins Mrq. & Merch. I. i. 74 Jack's beanstalk was nothing to it. |
| 1823 J. Badcock Dom. Amusem. 54 Thrust a *bean-stick into the ground. |
| c 1386 Chaucer Merch. T. 178 [A] woman thirty yere of age..is but *bene-straw. |
| 1838 Hawthorne Amer. Note Bks. (1871) I. 127 *Bean-vines running up round the doors. |
▪ II. bean, v. slang (chiefly
U.S.).
(
biːn)
[f. prec., sense 5 b.] trans. To hit on the head.
| 1910 Amer. Mag. 398/2 He is in extreme danger of being ‘beaned’, which, in baseball, means hit in the head. 1924 Wodehouse Bill the Conqueror v. 93 Why did you not bean him with a shoe before he could make his getaway? 1939 C. Morley Kitty Foyle xii. 124 She was beaned by a copy of A Girl of the Limberlost that fell from the third floor. |