Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BEARD, n. [berd; Sax. beard; D. baard; Ger. and Dan. bart; L. barba; Russ. boroda, the beard and the chin. As this word is from bear, the pronunciation beerd is very improper.]

1. The hair that grows on the chin, lips and adjacent parts of the face, chiefly of male adults; hence a mark of virility. A gray beard, long beard, and reverend beard, are terms for old age.
2. Beard is sometimes used for the face; and to do a thing to a man's beard, is to do it in defiance, or to his face. – Johnson.
3. The awn or sharp prickles on the ears of corn. But more technically, parallel hairs or a tuft of stiff hairs terminating the leaves of plants, a species of pubescence. By some authors the name is given to the lower lip of a ringent corol. – Martyn.
4. A barb or sharp point of an arrow, or other instrument, bent backward from the end to prevent its being easily drawn out.
5. The beard or chuck of a horse, is that part which bears the curb of a bridle, underneath the lower mandible and above the chin. – Farrier's Dict. Encyc.
6. The rays of a comet, emitted toward that part of the heaven to which its proper motion seems to direct it. – Encyc.
7. The threads or hairs of an oyster, muscle or similar shell-fish, by which they fasten themselves to stones. – Encyc.
8. In insects, two small, oblong, fleshy bodies, placed just above the trunk, as in gnats, moths and butterflies. – Encyc.