Bead sb.

Forms: 1–2 bed, 3–4 beode, 3–7, and (archaically) 9 bede, 5 bed, beed, 5–6 bedde, beid, 6–7 beade, 5– bead. [ME. bede, pl. bedes, beden, perh. repr. an OE. *bedu, *bed (fem.) = OFris. bede, OS. beda, MDu. and Du. bede, OHG. beta, MHG. bete, mod.G. bitte, Goth. bida (str. fem.), f. Goth. bidjan, in OE. biddan to pray: see BID. But an OE. bedu is doubtful, and bed occurs only in comb. (bed-hús, etc.), the regular OE. word being ʓebed (neut.), in ME. IBED, ? ibede, pl. ibeoden, from which bede may have arisen by aphesis in early ME. The name was transferred from ‘prayer’ to the small globular bodies used for ‘telling beads,’ i.e., counting prayers said, from which the other senses naturally followed.]

  I.  Prayer, and connected senses.

  † 1.  Prayer; pl. prayers, devotions. Obs.

c. 885.  K. Ælfred, Bæda, I. vii. (Bosw.). Ðæt he sceolde ða bedu anescian.

c. 1200.  Trin. Coll. Hom., 193. Þe þridde is bede. Ibid., 163. On salmes, and on songes, and on holde bedes. Ibid., 201. Alle holie beden ben … biheue.

c. 1230.  Ancr. R., 44. Beoð i beoden.

c. 1305.  St. Lucy, 37, in E. E. P. (1862), 102. Þer hi leye in hire bedes.

c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron., 202. Better is holy bede.

c. 1330.  King of Tars, 643. With beodes and with preyere.

1426.  Audelay, Poems, 15. Ȝif he be besé in his bedus.

c. 1430.  Hymns Virg. (1867), 6. To þee y make my beed.

1494.  Fabyan, VI. ccxiii. 229. I hoped to haue ben saued by your bedes & prayers.

1554.  Chron. Grey Friars (1852), 92. Went unto the crosse, & stode there alle the [sermon] tyme, & whan he came unto the beddes they turnyd unto the precher & knelyd downe.

  b.  In later usage (after sense 2 became the popular one) there was almost always a reference direct or indirect to the use of the rosary.

a. 1550[?].  Pore helpe, 369, in E. P. P. (Hazl.), III. 265. Take you to your beades; All men and women … That useth so to praye.

1589.  Nashe, Almond for P., 14 b. [He] would haue run a false gallop ouer his beades with anie man in England.

1648.  Herrick, Hesper. (1869), 70. Be briefe in praying, Few beads are best, when once we goe a maying.

1741.  Richardson, Pamela (1824), I. xxx. 49. I began … to say the Lord’s prayer. None of your beads to me, Pamela, said he; thou art a perfect nun.

  c.  To bid a bead: to offer a prayer; hence beads bidding, the saying of prayers. Also To say one’s beads.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 2981. Moyses bad is bede.

c. 1330.  Assump. Virg., 876. To ihesu þei bede a bede.

c. 1380.  Wyclif, Sel. Wks., 1871, II. 420. How þei shulen bidde her bedis.

1387.  Trevisa, Higden, Rolls Ser. VI. 225. He travailled besiliche in bedes byddynge.

1563.  Homilies, II. Idolatry, III. (1859), 236. For the which they pray in their beads bidding.

1598.  Drayton, Heroic. Ep., iii. 87. The Beades that we will bid, shall be sweet Kisses.

[1656.  Blount, Glossogr., s.v., To say our Bedes, is to say our prayers.]

1681.  Burnet, Hist. Ref., II. 55. All the people said their beads in a general silence.

1764.  Gray, Lett., in Poems (1775), 381. Bidding his beads for the souls of his benefactors.

1870.  Morris, Earthly Par., I. I. 152. To fetch the priest … To bury her and say her bede.

  2.  A small perforated ball or other body, a series of which (formerly called ‘a pair of beads’) threaded upon a string, forms the rosary or paternoster, used for keeping count of the number of prayers said. Hence b. To tell or count one’s beads: to say one’s prayers. To pray without one’s beads: to be ‘out of one’s reckoning.’

  1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. XV. 119. A peyre bedes in her hande And a boke vnder hire arme.

1446.  Test. Ebor. (1855), II. 124. A pare of bedes of corall with gaudes of gete.

1483.  Cath. Angl., 24/1. A bede, precula.

1533.  More, Answ. Poysoned Bk., Wks. 1120/1. Away wyth our ladies psalter, and cast the bedes in the fyre.

c. 1550.  Auentur on Weddinsd. (Bann. MS.). Ane pair of beids about hir throt.

1570.  Act 13 Eliz., ii. § 7. Crosses, Pictures, Beads and such like superstitious Things.

1652.  Collinges, Caveat for Prof. (1653), A ij. I no where read, That thy Apostles ever us’d a Bead.

1697.  C’tess. D’Aunoy’s Trav. (1706), 142. She presented me with a pair of Beads of Paulo d’Aguila, a curious sort of wood.

1732.  Pope, Ess. Man, II. 280. Beads and prayerbooks are the toys of age.

1878.  B. Taylor, Deukalion, II. i. 53. Five hundred have I told upon these beads.

  1641.  J. Jackson, Evang. Temper, iii. 188. Telling the panes of glasse, as fast as a Papist doth his Beads.

a. 1659.  F. Osborn, Machiavel (1662), 356. In which he prayed without his Beads, being so far out, in the account, as that [etc.].

1759.  Sterne, Tr. Shandy, I. xl. Cross himself;—tell his beads:—be a good Catholic.

1792.  J. Barlow, Conspir. Kings, 78. He counts his beads, and spends his holy zeal.

1800.  Coleridge, Christabel, II. ii. The sacristan Five and forty beads must tell.

1883.  Gilmour, Mongols, xvii. 205. Counting beads and making pilgrimages.

  3.  Comb., chiefly attrib. (mostly archaic, and, when used by modern writers, often spelt bede): bead-child, a child who prays for the welfare of a benefactor or relative; bead-folk, people (often pensioners) who pray for a benefactor; bead-house (north. dial. beadus, Welsh Bettws), originally a house of prayer, hence an alms-house, the inmates of which were to pray for the soul of the founder; † bead-master, a religious officer who attends to the poor, a deacon; † bead-song, song of prayer; beads-woman, a woman who prays for a benefactor, an almswoman. Also BEAD-ROLL, BEADSMAN.

1499[?].  Plumpton Corr., 140. Your good son & *beadchild, German Pole. Ibid. (1465[?]), 15. Others your well willers, servants, and *bed folkes.

1849.  Rock, Ch. of Fathers, III. viii. 134. To live and do as *bead-folks should.

c. 1160.  Hatton Gosp., Matt. xxi. 13. Min hus ys *bed-hus [Ags. G. ʓebed-hus].

1485.  Will, in Ripon Ch. Acts, 277. The *bedehouse beside the Mawdelayns.

1774.  T. West, Antiq. Furness (1805), 180. Lodgyns and *bed-howses for x poor men.

1864.  Atkinson, Whitby Gloss., *Beadus or Beadhouse, an almshouse.

1866.  Neale, Seq. & Hymns, 126.

1579.  Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., 295/1. The Deacons, that is to say, the *Beade maisters, and such as see to the poore.

c. 1200.  Ormin, 1450. Wiþþ fassting, & wiþþ *bedesang.

1465[?].  Plumpton Corr., 14. Your dayly *bedewoman my huswif.

1502.  Marg. C’tess Richmond, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., I. 23, I. 48. Your feythfull trewe *bedwoman and humble modyr.

1536.  in Strype, Eccl. Mem., I. i. xxxv. 256. Your poor *bedes women The whole convent of Styxwold.

1629.  Shirley, Gratef. Serv., III. i. My humblest service to his grace: I am his *beadswoman.

1720.  Stow’s Surv. (Strype, 1754), I. i. xxvii. 229/1. Ten poor women called *Bedes women, and six poor Clerks.

1864.  Miss Yonge, Bk. Gold. Deeds, 194. Asking the Queen to make her a *bedeswoman at Vienna.

  II.  Extensions of sense 2.

  4.  A small perforated body, spherical or otherwise, of glass, amber, metal, wood, etc., used as an ornament, either strung in a series to form a necklace, bracelet, etc., or sewn upon various fabrics.

c. 1400.  Destr. of Troy, XV. 7044. Garmentes full gay … Bright beidis & Brasse broght þai with-all.

1599.  Hakluyt, Voy., II. II. 32. About their neckes great beades of glasse of diuerse colours.

1647.  Cowley, Mistr., Bargain, ii. The foolish Indian that sells His precious Gold for Beads and Bells.

1753.  Hanway, Trav. (1762), I. VI. lxxxi. 371. Their old way of reckoning … is with beads on wires, which they work without pen and ink.

1836.  Marryat, Japhet, xviii. A long chain of round coral and gold beads.

  fig.  1590.  Shaks., Mids. N., III. ii. 329. You minimus … You bead, you acorne.

1870.  Lowell, Study Wind., 97. Quincy’s [life] was strung with seventy active years, each one a rounded bead of usefulness and service.

  b.  (The plural is commonly used in sense of a string of beads for the neck; formerly the sing. seems to have been occas. so used.)

c. 1500.  Mayd Emlyn, in Poet. Tracts (1842), 21. And sayth that she lackes Many prety knackes, As bedes and gyrdels gaye.

1596.  Shaks., Tam. Shr., IV. iii. 58. With Amber Bracelets, Beades, and all this knau’ry.

1655.  H. Vaughan, Silex Scint., I. 77. There’s one Sun more strung on my Bead of days.

Mod.  Do they wear beads? She cannot find her beads.

  5.  In various transf. senses applied to things having some of the characteristics of the prec.:—

  a.  A bead-like drop of liquid or of molten metal.

1596.  Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., II. iii. 61. Beds of sweate hath stood vpon thy Brow. Ibid. (1601), Jul. C., III. i. 284. Seeing those Beads of sorrow stand in thine.

1633.  G. Herbert, Sacrifice, vi. in Temple, 19. My hearts deare treasure Drops bloud (the onely beads) my words to measure.

1854.  Scoffern, in Orr’s Circ. Sc., Chem. 507. The bead of impure silver is seen to emit fumes.

  b.  A bubble of foam; spec. a bubble in spirits, sparkling wines, etc.; the foam or head upon certain beverages. Cf. bead-proof.

1753.  Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Bead is also used for a little, round, white froth formed on the surface of brandy, or spirit of wine, upon shaking the glass.

1839.  Bailey, Festus, xiv. An eye which outsparkles the beads of the wine.

1863.  Kingsley, Water-Bab., vi. 255. Swimming about among the foam-beads below.

1883.  Harper’s Mag., 894/2. There is … a finer bead on this wine of mirth.

  c.  A clear nacreous spot on the surface of shells.

1842.  Johnston, in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, II. x. 32. The clear spots or beads of the transverse lines [on a shell] are much larger.

  d.  The small metal knob that forms the front sight of a gun; esp. in the phrase (of U. S. origin) To draw a bead upon: to take aim at.

1841.  Catlin, N. Amer. Ind. (1844), I. x. 77. I made several attempts to get near enough to ‘draw a bead’ upon one of them.

1844.  Marryat, Settlers, II. 206. ‘Now, John,’ said Malachi; ‘get your bead well on him.’

1875.  Ure, Dict. Arts, II. 391. The front sight is that known as the bead-sight, which consists of a small steel needle, with a little head upon it like the head of an ordinary pin, enclosed in a steel tube. In aiming with this sight, the eye is directed … to the bead in the tube.

1885.  T. Roosevelt, Hunting Trips, viii. ¶ 32. The drops stood out in the sights of the rifle so that I could hardly draw a bead.

  e.  A string of sponges; see quot.

1885.  Lady Brassey, In Trades, 339. The sponges are strung upon small palmetto strips, three or four to a strip, which is called a ‘bead.’

  6.  Arch. A small globular ornament, commonly applied in a row like a string of beads. b. A narrow molding having a semicircular section.

1802.  Gentl. Mag., LXXII. II. 1118. Bead, a globular ornament peculiar to Saxon architecture, carved in the mouldings.

1803.  Phil. Trans., XCIII. 171. On the edges … a small regular raised bead or moulding was formed.

1851.  Ruskin, Stones Ven. (1874), I. xxi. 256. I think bead a bad word for a continuous moulding.

1861.  Parker, Goth. Archit., Gloss. (1874), 320. Bead, an ornament resembling a row of beads.

1869.  Sir E. Reed, Ship Build., xi. 233. Beads of india-rubber are fitted in the rabbets of the frame.

  7.  Beads of St. Elline: certain round roots brought out of Florida (Bullokar, 1616). St. Martin’s beads: (the sanctuary of St. Martin’s-le-Grand, London, was a noted resort of makers of sham jewellery. F. Cohen, in Archæol., XVIII. 56, quotes an ordinance of the Star Chamber in 36 Hen. VI. for the regulation of that sanctuary, by which it is declared that ‘no workers of counterfeit cheynes, beades, broaches, owches, rings, cups, and spoons silvered,’ should be suffered therein.) Baily’s beads: a phenomenon observed in total eclipses of the sun; see quotations. Wilson’s or Lovis’s beads: a series of globular bodies of different densities, formerly used to determine the specific gravity of a spirit into which they were thrown one by one.

1678.  Butler, Hud., Lady’s Answ., 59. Those false St. Martins Beads.

1867.  G. F. Chambers, Astron., 175. When the disc of the Moon advancing over that of the Sun has reduced the latter to a thin crescent, it is usually noticed that immediately before the beginning and after the end of complete obscuration, the crescent appears as a band of brilliant points, separated by dark spaces so as to give it the appearance of a string of beads…. These phenomena are generally known as Baily’s beads, having received their name from the late Mr. Francis Baily, who was the first to describe them in detail. The earliest account of the … beads is contained in Halley’s memoir on the total eclipse of 1715.

1874.  S. Johnson, Eclipses, 66. A.D. 1836, May 15. An eclipse of the sun…. Famous for what is known as ‘Baily’s beads,’ noticed by Mr. Baily, at Jedburgh, in Roxburghshire.

1878.  Newcomb, Pop. Astron., III. iii. 314. ‘Baily’s beads’ … are caused by the sun shining through the depressions between the lunar mountains.

  8.  Comb., as bead-amber, -maker, -potato, -string, -work; beadlike adj.; also bead-frame, a frame containing beads strung upon wires used for teaching numeration, an abacus; bead-plant; bead-proof a. (of alcoholic spirits), such that a crown of bubbles (see 5 b) formed by shaking will stand for some time after on the surface (a fallacious test of strength); also, according to some recent works, of a certain proof, as tested by Wilson’s or Lovis’s Beads (see 7); bead-sedge, the Bur-reed (Sparganium ramosum); bead-snake, a small American snake (Elaps fulvus); bead-stone, a stone used as a bead, or of which beads are made; bead-tree, the AZEDARAC. Also BEAD-ROLL.

1611.  Cotgr., Ambre de Paternostres, *Bead-amber; the ordinarie yellow Amber.

1626.  Bacon, Sylva, § 83. Bead-Amber, which is at first is a soft Substance.

1858.  Curwen, Singing for Sch., Introd. 20. Till the pupil … is able to perform some of its [arithmetic] simpler operations by the help of the *Bead-Frame or the Box of various Objects.

1876.  Humphrey, Coin Coll. Man., xxvi. 400. The minor *bead-like decorations, borders of pearls, &c.

1580.  Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong, Vn paternostrier, a *beades maker.

1723.  Lond. Gaz., No. 6172/7. William Dossett … *Beadmaker.

1878.  R. Thompson, Gard. Assist., 709/2. Nertera scapanioides … Popularly known as the *bead plant, owing to the profusion of golden berries it produces.

1807.  Vancouver, Agric. Devon (1813), 455. To produce languid shoots and a number of small *bead potatoes of no value.

1753.  Chambers, Cycl. Supp., *Bead-proof, a term used by our distillers.

1562.  Turner, Herbal, II. 143 b. It maye be called *bede sedge or knop sedge.

1863.  Prior, Plant-n., 17. Bede-sedge, from its round bead-like burs … Sparganium ramosum.

1736.  Mortimer, in Phil. Trans., XXXIX. 258. The *Bead-Snake … commonly found under Ground.

1867.  Wood, Pop. Nat. Hist., III. 52. One of the brightest and loveliest of Serpents is the Bead Snake of North America.

1677.  Lond. Gaz., No. 1202/4. Three broad Chains set with *Bead Stones.

1851.  D. Wilson, Preh. Ann. (1863), II. IV. vi. 338. Bone draughtsmen, or bead stones.

1801.  W. Taylor, in Month. Mag., XII. 583. The most precious jewel in the long *bead-string of his pedigree.

a. 1872.  Maurice, Friendsh. Bks., ii. 44. Not even a beadstring to hang the different meanings upon.

1668.  Wilkins, Real Char., II. iv. § 7. 115. Clove Tree, *Bede Tree.

1852.  Th. Ross, Humboldt’s Trav., II. xvii. 136. Hedges of bead-trees.

1840.  R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xxvi. 85. Indian curiosities … such as *bead-work.

1881.  Mechanic, § 1597. The mouldings or any bead-work should be painted.