Noun

(en noun)

(lb) Prayer, later especially with a rosary.

*1760 , (Laurence Sterne), , Penguin 2003, p.115:

*:That he must believe in the Pope;—go to Mass;—cross himself;—tell his beads ;—be a good Catholick, and that this, in all conscience, was enough to carry him to heaven.

Each in a string of small balls making up the rosary or paternoster.

A small round object.

#A small round object with a hole to allow it to be threaded on a cord or wire.

#A small round solid object.

#*{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author= Charles T. Ambrose

, title= Alzheimer’s Disease , volume=101, issue=3, page=200, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Similar studies of rats have employed four different intracranial resorbable, slow sustained release systems—surgical foam, a thermal gel depot, a microcapsule or biodegradable polymer beads .}}

#A small drop of water or other liquid.

#:

#A bubble, in spirits.

#A small round ball at the end of a barrel of a gun used for aiming.

#:

#*

#*:But then I had the [massive] flintlock by me for protection. ¶, and a 'bead' could be drawn upon Molly, the dairymaid, kissing the fogger behind the hedge, little dreaming that the deadly tube was levelled at them.

(lb) A ridge, band, or molding.

#A rigid edge of a tire that mounts it on a wheel; tire bead.

A knowledge sufficient to direct one's activities to a purpose.

:

A glassy drop of molten flux, as borax or microcosmic salt, used as a solvent and color test for several mineral earths and oxides, as of iron, manganese, etc., before the blowpipe.

:

Front sight of a gun.