▪ I. bead, n.
(biːd)
Forms: 1–2 bed, 3–4 beode, 3–7, and (archaically) 9 bede, 5 bed, beed, 5–6 bedde, beid, 6–7 beade, 5– bead.
[ME. bede, pl. bedes, beden, perh. repr. an OE. *bedu, *bed (fem.) = OFris. bede, OS. beda, MDu. and Du. bede, OHG. beta, MHG. bete, mod.G. bitte, Goth. bida (str. fem.), f. Goth. bidjan, in OE. biddan to pray: see bid. But an OE. bedu is doubtful, and bed occurs only in comb. (bed-h{uacu}s, etc.), the regular OE. word being ᵹebed (neut.), in ME. ibed, ? ibede, pl. ibeoden, from which bede may have arisen by aphesis in early ME. The name was transferred from ‘prayer’ to the small globular bodies used for ‘telling beads,’ i.e. counting prayers said, from which the other senses naturally followed.]
I. Prayer, and connected senses.
† 1. a. Prayer; pl. prayers, devotions. Obs.
| c 885 K. ælfred Bæda i. vii. (Bosw.) Ðæt he sceolde ða bedu anescian. c 1200 Trin. Col. Hom. 193 Þe þridde is bede. Ibid. 163 On salmes, and on songes, and on holde bedes. Ibid. 201 Alle holie beden ben..biheue. c 1230 Ancr. R. 44 Beoð i beoden. c 1305 St. Lucy 37 in E.E.P. (1862) 102 Þer hi leye in hire bedes. 1330 R. Brunne Chron. 202 Better is holy bede. c 1330 King of Tars 643 With beodes and with preyere. 1426 Audelay Poems 15 Ȝif he be besé in his bedus. c 1430 Hymns Virg. (1867) 6 To þee y make my beed. 1494 Fabyan vi. ccxiii. 229, I hoped to haue ben saued by your bedes & prayers. 1554 Chron. Grey Friars (1852) 92 Went unto the crosse, & stode there alle the [sermon] tyme, & whan he came unto the beddes they turnyd unto the precher & knelyd downe. |
b. In later usage (after sense 2 became the popular one) there was almost always a reference direct or indirect to the use of the rosary.
| ? a 1550 Pore helpe 369 in E.P.P. (Hazl.) III. 265 Take you to your beades; All men and women..That useth so to praye. 1589 Nashe Almond for P. 14 b, [He] would haue run a false gallop ouer his beades with anie man in England. 1648 Herrick Hesper. (1869) 70 Be briefe in praying, Few beads are best, when once we goe a maying. 1741 Richardson Pamela (1824) I. xxx. 49, I began..to say the Lord's prayer. None of your beads to me, Pamela, said he; thou art a perfect nun. |
c. to bid a bead: to offer a prayer; hence
beads bidding, the saying of prayers. Also
to say one's beads.
| c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 2981 Moyses bad is bede. c 1330 Assump. Virg. 876 To ihesu þei bede a bede. c 1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. 1871 II. 420 How þei shulen bidde her bedis. 1387 Trevisa Higden Rolls Ser. VI. 225 He travailled besiliche in bedes byddynge. 1563 Homilies ii. Idolatry iii. (1859) 236 For the which they pray in their beads bidding. 1598 Drayton Heroic. Ep. iii. 87 The Beades that we will bid, shall be sweet Kisses. [1656 Blount Glossogr. s.v., To say our Bedes, is to say our prayers.] 1681 Burnet Hist. Ref. II. 55 All the people said their beads in a general silence. 1764 Gray Let. in Poems (1775) 381 Bidding his beads for the souls of his benefactors. 1870 Morris Earthly Par. I. i. 152 To fetch the priest..To bury her and say her bede. |
2. a. A small perforated ball or other body, a series of which (formerly called ‘a pair of beads’) threaded upon a string, forms the
rosary or
paternoster, used for keeping count of the number of prayers said. Hence
b. to tell or count one's beads: to say one's prayers.
to pray without one's beads: to be ‘out of one's reckoning.’
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xv. 119 A peyre bedes in her hande And a boke vnder hire arme. 1446 Test. Ebor. (1855) II. 124 A pare of bedes of corall with gaudes of gete. 1483 Cath. Angl. 24/1 A bede, precula. 1533 More Answ. Poysoned Bk. Wks. 1120/1 Away wyth our ladies psalter, and cast the bedes in the fyre. c 1550 Auentur on Weddinsd. (Bann. MS.) Ane pair of beids about hir throt. 1570 Act 13 Eliz. ii. §7 Crosses, Pictures, Beads and such like superstitious Things. 1652 J. Collinges Caveat for Prof. (1653) A ij, I no where read, That thy Apostles ever us'd a Bead. 1697 C'tess D' Aunoy's Trav. (1706) 142 She presented me with a pair of Beads of Paulo d'Aguila, a curious sort of wood. 1732 Pope Ess. Man ii. 280 Beads and prayerbooks are the toys of age. 1878 B. Taylor Deukalion ii. i. 53 Five hundred have I told upon these beads. |
| 1641 J. Jackson Evang. Temper iii. 188 Telling the panes of glasse, as fast as a Papist doth his Beads. a 1659 Osborn Machiavel (1673) 356 In which he prayed without his Beads, being so far out, in the account, as that, etc. 1759 Sterne Tr. Shandy I. xl, Cross himself;—tell his beads:—be a good Catholic. 1792 J. Barlow Conspir. Kings 78 He counts his beads, and spends his holy zeal. 1800 Coleridge Christabel ii. ii, The sacristan Five and forty beads must tell. 1883 Gilmour Mongols xvii. 205 Counting beads and making pilgrimages. |
3. Comb., chiefly
attrib. (mostly archaic, and, when used by modern writers, often spelt
bede):
bead-child, a child that prays for the welfare of a benefactor or relative;
bead-folk, people (often pensioners) who pray for a benefactor;
bead-house (
north. dial. beadus, Welsh
Bettws), originally a house of prayer,
hence an alms-house, the inmates of which were to pray for the soul of the founder;
† bead-master, a religious officer who attends to the poor, a deacon;
† bead-song, song of prayer;
beads-woman, a woman who prays for a benefactor, an almswoman. Also
bead-roll,
beadsman.
| ? 1499 Plumpton Corr. 140 Your good son & *beadchild, German Pole. |
| ? 1465 Ibid. 15 Others your well willers, servants, and *bed folkes. |
| 1849 Rock Ch. of Fathers III. viii. 134 To live and do as *bead-folks should. |
| c 1160 Hatton Gosp. Matt. xxi. 13 Min hus ys *bed-hus [Ags. G. ᵹebed-hus]. |
| 1485 Will in Ripon Ch. Acts 277 The *bedehouse beside the Mawdelayns. |
| 1774 T. West Antiq. Furness (1805) 180 Lodgyns and *bed-howses for x poor men. |
| 1864 Atkinson Whitby Gloss., *Beadus or Beadhouse, an almshouse. |
| 1866 Neale Seq. & Hymns 126 They raised full many a *bede⁓house, but never a bastile. |
| 1579 Tomson Calvin's Serm., Tim. 295/1 The Deacons, that is to say, the *Beade maisters, and such as see to the poore. |
| c 1200 Ormin 1450 Wiþþ fassting, & wiþþ *bedesang. |
| ? 1465 Plumpton Corr. 14 Your dayly *bedewoman my huswif. |
| 1502 Marg. C'tess Richmond in Ellis Orig. Lett. i. 23 I. 48 Your feythfull trewe *bedwoman and humble modyr. |
| 1536 in Strype Eccl. Mem. I. i. xxxv. 256 Your poor *bedes women The whole convent of Styxwold. |
| 1629 Shirley Gratef. Serv. iii. i, My humblest service to his grace: I am his *beads⁓woman. |
| 1720 Stow's Surv. (Strype 1754) I. i. xxvii. 229/1 Ten poor women called *Bedes women, and six poor Clerks. |
| 1864 C. M. Yonge Bk. Golden Deeds 194 Asking the Queen to make her a *bedeswoman at Vienna. |
II. Extensions of sense 2.
4. a. A small perforated body, spherical or otherwise, of glass, amber, metal, wood, etc., used as an ornament, either strung in a series to form a necklace, bracelet, etc., or sewn upon various fabrics.
| c 1400 Destr. of Troy xv. 7044 Garmentes full gay..Bright beidis & Brasse broght þai with-all. 1599 Hakluyt Voy. II. ii. 32 About their neckes great beades of glasse of diuerse colours. 1647 Cowley Mistr., Bargain ii, The foolish Indian that sells His precious Gold for Beads and Bells. 1753 Hanway Trav. (1762) I. vi. lxxxi. 371 Their old way of reckoning..is with beads on wires, which they work without pen and ink. 1836 Marryat Japhet xviii, A long chain of round coral and gold beads. |
| fig. 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. iii. ii. 329 You minimus..You bead, you acorne. 1870 Lowell Study Wind. 97 Quincy's [life] was strung with seventy active years, each one a rounded bead of usefulness and service. |
b. (The
pl. is commonly used in sense of a string of beads for the neck; formerly the
sing. seems to have been
occas. so used.)
| c 1500 Mayd Emlyn in Poet. Tracts (1842) 21 And sayth that she lackes Many prety knackes, As bedes and gyrdels gaye. 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. iv. iii. 58 With Amber Bracelets, Beades, and all this knau'ry. 1655 H. Vaughan Silex Scint. i. 77 There's one Sun more strung on my Bead of days. Mod. Do they wear beads? She cannot find her beads. |
5. In various
transf. senses applied to things having some of the characteristics of the
prec. a. A bead-like drop of liquid or of molten metal.
spec. of sweat,
esp. on the face.
| 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, ii. iii. 61 Beds of sweate hath stood vpon thy Brow. 1601 ― Jul. C. iii. i 284 Seeing those Beads of sorrow stand in thine. 1633 G. Herbert Sacrifice vi. in Temple 19 My hearts deare treasure Drops bloud (the onely beads) my words to measure. 1854 Scoffern in Orr's Circ. Sc. Chem. 507 The bead of impure silver is seen to emit fumes. 1888 A. C. Gunter Mr. Potter of Texas v, [He] wipes the great beads of exhausted toil from his forehead. Ibid., The beads of perspiration. |
b. A bubble of foam;
spec. a bubble in spirits, sparkling wines, etc.; the foam or head upon certain beverages.
Cf. bead-proof (sense 8 below).
| 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp., Bead is also used for a little, round, white froth formed on the surface of brandy, or spirit of wine, upon shaking the glass. 1839 Bailey Festus xiv, An eye which outsparkles the beads of the wine. 1863 Kingsley Water-Bab. vi. 255 Swimming about among the foam-beads below. 1883 Harper's Mag. 894/2 There is..a finer bead on this wine of mirth. |
c. A clear nacreous spot on the surface of shells.
| 1842 Johnston in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club II. x. 32 The clear spots or beads of the transverse lines [on a shell] are much larger. |
d. The small metal knob which forms the front sight of a gun;
esp. in the phrase (of
U.S. origin)
to draw a bead upon: to take aim at. Also
fig.| 1831 Audubon Ornith. Biogr. I. 294 He raised his piece until the bead (that being the name given by the Kentuckians to the sight) of the barrel was brought to a line with the spot he intended to hit. 1841 Catlin N. Amer. Ind. (1844) I. x. 77, I made several attempts to get near enough to ‘draw a bead’ upon one of them. 1844 Marryat Settlers II. 206 ‘Now, John,’ said Malachi; ‘get your bead well on him.’ 1875 Ure Dict. Arts II. 391 The front sight is that known as the bead-sight, which consists of a small steel needle, with a little head upon it like the head of an ordinary pin, enclosed in a steel tube. In aiming with this sight, the eye is directed..to the bead in the tube. 1919 Chambers's Jrnl. June 399/1 I'd got a lovely bead on her with one of my own torpedoes. 1929 G. Mitchell Myst. Butcher's Shop xii. 132 You've got a bead on your man all right. |
e. A string of sponges; see
quot.| 1885 A. Brassey In Trades 339 The sponges are strung upon small palmetto strips, three or four to a strip, which is called a ‘bead.’ |
6. a. Arch. A small globular ornament, commonly applied in a row like a string of beads. Also in the names of various ornamental designs, as
bead and butt,
flush,
reel, etc.
b. A narrow moulding having a semicircular section.
| 1799, etc. Bead and flush [see flush a.1 5 b]. 1802 Gentl. Mag. LXXII. ii. 1118 Bead, a globular ornament peculiar to Saxon architecture, carved in the mouldings. 1803 Phil. Trans. XCIII. 171 On the edges..a small regular raised bead or moulding was formed. 1851 Ruskin Stones Ven. (1874) I. xxi. 256, I think bead a bad word for a continuous moulding. 1861 Parker Goth. Archit. Gloss. (1874) 320 Bead, an ornament resembling a row of beads. 1869 E. J. Reed Ship Build. xi. 233 Beads of india-rubber are fitted in the rabbets of the frame. 1904 P. Macquoid Hist. Eng. Furniture vii. 191 The sides are inlaid with the bead and spindle, or husk design so popular at this time. 1909 Webster, Bead and butt, bead and reel. 1937 W. Rose Village Carpenter iv. 42 The outside doors to the ordinary house were made to the still well-known orders of ‘bead and butt’ or ‘bead and flush’. 1955 R. Fastnedge Eng. Furniture Styles 280 Bead and reel, a decorative border found in the form of inlay in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. |
c. Used of any thickened, rounded edge (
cf. bead rim).
| 1962 Gloss. Terms Glass Ind. (B.S.I.) 27 Bead, an enlarged, rounded edge of a glass article, or any raised section extending around the article. |
7. beads of St. Elline: certain round roots brought out of Florida (Bullokar 1616).
St. Martin's beads: (the sanctuary of
St. Martin's-le-Grand, London, was a noted resort of makers of sham jewellery. F. Cohen. in
Archæol. XVIII. 55, quotes an ordinance of the Star Chamber in 36
Hen. VI. for the regulation of that sanctuary, by which it is declared that ‘no workers of counterfeit cheynes, beades, broaches, owches, rings, cups, and spoons silvered, should be suffered therein.’)
Baily's beads: a phenomenon observed in total eclipses of the sun; see quotations.
Wilson's beads or
Lovis's beads: a series of globular bodies of different densities, formerly used to determine the specific gravity of a spirit into which they were thrown one by one.
| 1678 Butler Hud., Lady's Answ. 59 Those false St. Martins Beads. 1867 G. Chambers Astron. 175 When the disc of the Moon advancing over that of the Sun has reduced the latter to a thin crescent, it is usually noticed that immediately before the beginning and after the end of complete obscuration, the crescent appears as a band of brilliant points, separated by dark spaces so as to give it the appearance of a string of beads..These phenomena are generally known as Baily's beads, having received their name from the late Mr. Francis Baily, who was the first to describe them in detail. The earliest account of the..beads is contained in Halley's memoir on the total eclipse of 1715. 1874 S. Johnson Eclipses 66 An eclipse of the sun a.d 1836, May 15..Famous for what is known as ‘Baily's beads’ noticed by Mr. Baily, at Jedburgh, in Roxburghshire. 1878 Newcomb Pop. Astron. iii. iii. 314 ‘Baily's beads’ ..are caused by the sun shining through the depressions between the lunar mountains. |
8. Comb., as
bead-amber,
bead-berry,
bead-maker,
bead-note;
bead-potato,
bead-string,
bead-work;
bead-bonny,
bead-brown,
bead-dark,
bead-eyed,
bead-like adj.; also
bead-frame, a frame containing beads strung upon wires used for teaching numeration, an abacus;
bead lightning (see
quot. 1901);
cf. beaded lightning;
bead-plane, a carpenter's plane for running a bead on moulding;
bead-plant;
bead-proof a. (of alcoholic spirits), such that a crown of bubbles (see 5 b) formed by shaking will stand for some time after on the surface (a fallacious test of strength); also, according to some recent works, of a certain proof, as tested by Wilson's or Lovis's Beads (see 7);
bead rim, a thickened, rounded rim (
cf. 6 c); also
attrib.; so
bead-rimmed adj.;
bead screen, beaded screen (see
beaded ppl. a. 1 d);
bead-sedge, the Bur-reed (
Sparganium ramosum);
bead-snake, a small American snake (
Elaps fulvus);
bead-stone, (
a) a stone used as a bead, or of which beads are made; (
b)
Zool. (see
quot. 1896);
bead-tree, the
azedarac;
bead-work, (
a) ornamental work with beads; also
attrib.; so
bead-worked adj.; (
b) bead moulding (
bead n. 6). Also
bead-roll.
| 1611 Cotgr., Ambre de Paternostres, *Bead-amber; the ordinarie yellow Amber. 1626 Bacon Sylva §83 Bead-Amber, which is at first is a soft Substance. |
| 1923 D. H. Lawrence Birds, Beasts & Flowers 107 He squatted and looked at me. With sticking-out, *bead-berry eyes. |
| 1881 G. M. Hopkins Poems (1918) 53 The *beadbonny ash that sits over the burn. |
| 1912 W. de la Mare Listeners 14 Her small *bead-brown eyes. |
| 1937 ― This Year:Next Year, Low head outstretched, and *bead-dark eyes. |
| 1835 F. A. Butler Jrnl. II. 179 A fat, good tempered, rosy, *bead-eyed, wet-haired, shining-faced looking man accosted me. |
| 1858 Curwen Singing for Sch. Introd. 20 Till the pupil..is able to perform some of its [arithmetic] simpler operations by the help of the *Bead-Frame or the Box of various Objects. |
| 1901 Rep. Smithsonian Inst. 1899 129 *Bead lightning..is a very beautiful luminous appearance, like a string of beads hung in a cloud. |
| 1876 H. N. Humphreys Coin Coll. Man. xxvi. 400 The minor *bead-like decorations, borders of pearls, &c. |
| 1580 Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Vn paternostrier, a *beades maker. 1723 Lond. Gaz. No. 6172/7 William Dossett..Beadmaker. |
| 1938 W. de la Mare Memory 60 *Bead-note of bird where earth and elfland meet. |
| 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, *Bead-plane, a moulding plane of semicylindrical contour. |
| 1878 R. Thompson Gard. Assist. 709/2, Nertera scapanioides..Popularly known as the *bead plant, owing to the profusion of golden berries it produces. |
| 1807 Vancouver Agric. Devon (1813) 455 To produce languid shoots and a number of small *bead potatoes of no value. |
| 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp., *Bead-proof, a term used by our distillers. |
| 1936 Antiquaries Jrnl. XVI. 270 The *bead rim and the countersunk handle. 1943 R. E. M. Wheeler Maiden Cas. iii. 204 The rolled or ‘bead’ rim, which is predominantly characteristic of the ‘Wessex hill-fort B’ pottery, is in origin a device, not of the potter, but of the metal-worker, who thus gave rigidity to the lip of a vessel of thin metal. |
| 1940 V. G. Childe Prehist. Communities Brit. Isles xiii. 251 The ceramic industry was industrialized, specialist potters turning out en masse *bead-rimmed vases of Continental pattern. |
| 1934 Amat. Cine World May 10/1 The most satisfactory type of screen so far evolved..is that known as the glass, *bead or crystal. 1938 G. H. Sewell Amat. Film-Making vi. 60 The silver and bead screens are an attempt to secure the utmost reflection of light from the projector. |
| 1562 Turner Herbal ii. 143 b, It maye be called *bede sedge or knop sedge. 1863 Prior Plant-n. 17 Bede-sedge, from its round bead-like burs..Sparganium ramosum. |
| 1736 Mortimer in Phil. Trans. XXXIX. 258 The *Bead-Snake..commonly found under Ground. 1867 Wood Pop. Nat. Hist. iii. 52 One of the brightest and loveliest of Serpents is the Bead Snake of North America. |
| 1677 Lond. Gaz. No. 1202/4 Three broad Chains set with *Bead Stones. 1851 D. Wilson Preh. Ann. (1863) II. iv. vi. 338 Bone draughtsmen, or bead stones. 1896 Trans. Victoria Inst. XXVIII. 206 Bead-stone is also called St. Cuthbert's beads, Fairy beads..and St. Boniface's money. They are the ring-like transverse sections of the so-called Vertical Column of stalked Echinoderms. |
| 1801 W. Taylor in Month. Mag. XII. 583 The most precious jewel in the long *bead-string of his pedigree. a 1872 Maurice Friendsh. Bks. ii. 44 Not even a beadstring to hang the different meanings upon. |
| 1668 Wilkins Real Char. ii. iv. §7. 115 Clove Tree, *Bede Tree. 1852 Th. Ross Humboldt's Trav. II. xvii. 136 Hedges of bead-trees. |
| 1840 R. Dana Bef. Mast xxvi. 85 Indian curiosities..such as bead-work. 1881 Mechanic §1597 The mouldings or any bead-work should be painted. 1751 Dorrington Hermit iii. 260 He..makes 24 of those Plaits, which he weaves together, making a flat Piece of *Bead-work. 1919 R. Fry in Athenæum 27 June 529/2 As we look at Leech's drawings, or sit in a bead-work chair. |
| 1909 Daily Chron. 18 Nov. 4/5 Painted and *bead-worked lampshades. 1920 Galsworthy In Chancery i. xii, A gilt chair with a bead-worked seat. |
▪ II. bead, v. (
biːd)
[f. prec.] 1. trans. To furnish, adorn, or work with beads.
| 1577 [see beaded]. 1822 Beddoes Bride's Trag. iii. iv, Drops enough to bead a thousand such [necklaces.] 1856 C. M. Yonge Daisy Chain i. xxii. (1879) 228 Morning dew, which beaded the webs of the spiders. |
2. Arch. To furnish with a bead or beading.
| 1851 Ruskin Stones Ven. I. xxii. §13 If we take the plain chamfer..and bead both its edges. |
3. intr. To form a bead or beads.
| 1873 Blackmore Cradock N. viii. (1881) 29 The fescue grass was beading rough with dew. 1884 Harper's Mag. Mar. 524/2 Every drop of water beading on the wall becomes a jewel. |
4. To string like beads; also
fig., and
intr. const. out.
| 1883 Harper's Mag. June 117/1 The houses are beaded along the..stream. 1938 G. Greene Brighton Rock vii. vii. 326 The Brighton lamps beaded out towards Worthing. |
5. To aim at (
cf. bead n. 5 d).
| 1888 Eng. Illustr. Mag. Dec. 214/1 Never fire until you have beaded your man. |