bead
pronunciation
How to pronounce bead in British English:
UK [biːd]
How to pronounce bead in American English:
US [biːd]
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- Noun:
- a small ball with a hole through the middle
- a shape that is small and round
- a beaded molding for edging or decorating furniture
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- Verb:
- form into beads, as of water or sweat, for example
- decorate by sewing beads onto
- string together like beads
Word Origin
- bead
- bead: [13] The word bead originally meant ‘prayer’. It comes ultimately from Germanic *beth-, source also of English bid. This passed into Old English as gebed, which by the 13th century had lost its prefix to become bede. (German has the parallel gebet ‘prayer’.) The modern sense ‘small pierced decorative ball’ developed in the 14th century, from the use of a string of rosary beads for counting while saying one’s prayers.=> bid
- bead (n.)
- mid-14c., bede "prayer bead," from Old English gebed "prayer," with intensive or collective prefix *ge- + Proto-Germanic *bidam "entreaty" (cognates: Middle Dutch bede, Old High German beta, German bitte, Gothic bida "prayer, request"), from PIE *gwhedh- "to ask, pray." Shift in meaning came via beads threaded on a string to count prayers, and in phrases like to bid one's beads, to count one's beads. German cognate Bitte is the usual word for conversational request "please." Also related to bid (Old English biddan) and Gothic bidjan "to ask, pray." Sense transferred to "drop of liquid" 1590s; to "small knob forming front sight of a gun" 1831 (Kentucky slang); hence draw a bead on "take aim at," 1841, U.S. colloquial.
- bead (v.)
- 1570s, "to adorn with beads," from bead (n.). Meaning "to string like beads" is from 1883. Related: Beaded; beading.
Example
- 1. Since then the researchers have reduced the bead 's size to about 250 micrometres .
- 2. Think of every positive experience during the day as a bead on a string , and see how they add up .
- 3. Common sense says that the pyramid should be most stable when the bead is at the bottom of the post , like ballast in the hold of a ship .
- 4. In dr toyabe 's experiment , the jolt that moved the bead came from molecules in the liquid buffeting it at random .
- 5. The toy would only take the bead pair horizontally , but despite this , the children held the bead pair vertically to test each bead separately .