ˈlong-beard
1. A man with a long beard.
| 1786 tr. Beckford's Vathek (1883) 128 Loud must have been the sound of the tymbals to overpower the blubbering of the Emir and his longbeards. |
¶ b. A pseudo-etymol. rendering of Lombard.
| 1647–8 Sir C. Cotterell Davila's Hist. Fr. (1678) 3 Famous incursions of the Longbeards. 1889 [see Longobardian]. |
2. An epiphytic plant, Tillandsia usneoides, found in the forests of the southern United States: also called long-moss, Spanish moss.
| 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, Long-beard, a name for a kind of moss or epiphyte brought down the Mississippi. 1866 in Treas. Bot. |
3. A bellarmine.
| 1878 Jewitt Ceramic Art Gt. Brit. I. 92 The Bellarmine, or Grey Beard, or Long Beard, as it was commonly called. |