Noun

(en-noun)

(dated) A man with a reputation for fine dress and etiquette; a dandy or fop.

* 1811 , Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility , chapter 21

“I do not comprehend the meaning of the word. But this I can say, that if he ever was a beau before he married, he is one still, for there is not the smallest alteration in him.”

“Oh! dear! one never thinks of married mens’(SIC) being beaux —they have something else to do.”

(dated) A male lover; a boyfriend.

* 1917 , Kate Douglas Wiggin, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm , p. 142:

Hannah's beau takes all her time 'n' thought, and when she gits a husband her mother'll be out o' sight and out o' mind.

* 2009 , Philippa Bourke, Monsters and Critics [http://www.monstersandcritics.com/people/news/article_1518335.php/Kristin-Davis-takes-cover-on-beach-with-beau#ixzz0ZRsqa5SS], Dec 10, 2009:

Kristin Davis has taken time out to enjoy the surf and sand with her Australian beau , photographer Russell James.

A male escort.

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.