bead: Meaning and Definition of

bead

1. a small, usually round object of glass, wood, stone, or the like with a hole through it, often strung with others of its kind in necklaces, rosaries, etc.
2. You don't have your beads on this evening.
1. a necklace of beads:You don't have your beads on this evening.
2. a rosary.
3. Obs.devotions; prayers.
3. any small globular or cylindrical body.
4. a drop of liquid: beads of moisture.
5. a bubble rising through effervescent liquid.
6. Usually,a mass of such bubbles on the surface of a liquid.
7. the front sight of a rifle or gun.
8. a reinforced area of a rubber tire terminating the sidewall and fitting within the rim of a wheel. See illus. under
9. a glass, ceramic, or plastic insulator that contains and supports the inner conductor in a coaxial cable.
10. a globule of borax or some other flux, supported on a platinum wire, in which a small amount of some substance is heated in a flame as a test for its constituents.
11. the rounded mass of refined metal obtained by cupellation.
12. a small molding having a convex circular section and, usually, a continuous cylindrical surface; astragal.
13. a continuous deposit of fused metal, either straightor zigzag
14. to say one's prayers, using rosary beads: There were a few old women counting their beads in the hushed silence of the chapel.
15. to take careful aim at: The marksman drew a bead on his target.

1. to form or cause to form beads or a bead on.
2. to ornament with beads.
3. to form a bead on (a piece).

1. to form beads; form in beads or drops: perspiration beading on his forehead.