beak
pronunciation
How to pronounce beak in British English:
UK [biːk]
How to pronounce beak in American English:
US [biːk]
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- Noun:
- beaklike mouth of animals other than birds (e.g., turtles)
- horny projecting mouth of a bird
- informal terms for the nose
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- Verb:
- hit lightly with a picking motion
Word Origin
- beak
- beak: [13] English acquired beak via Old French bec from Latin beccus, which was probably borrowed from some Gaulish word (the original Latin word for ‘beak’ was rostrum). The Roman historian Suetonius (c. 69–140 AD) tells of one Antonius Primus, a native of Toulouse, who was nicknamed as a boy Beccus, ‘that is, hen’s beak’. The Old English term for ‘beak’ was bile ‘bill’.=> soubriquet
- beak (n.)
- mid-13c., "bird's bill," from Old French bec "beak," figuratively "mouth," also "tip or point of a nose, a lance, a ship, a shoe," from Latin beccus (source also of Italian becco, Spanish pico), said by Suetonius ("De vita Caesarum" 18) to be of Gaulish origin, perhaps from Gaulish beccus, possibly related to Celtic stem bacc- "hook." Or there may be a link in Old English becca "pickax, sharp end." Jocular sense of "human nose" is from 1854 (but also was used mid-15c. in the same sense).
Example
- 1. The train 's nose resembles a kingfisher 's beak .
- 2. While its beak stays home .
- 3. This bald eagle named beauty was fitted with a remarkably life-like prosthetic beak .
- 4. On some mighty eagle 's beak
- 5. Clamped in the beak of a kingfisher , he has only moments to live before a final journey down the predator 's throat .