beads

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

bead /bid/   n. 

[countable]
1. Jewelry a small object of glass, wood, etc., with a hole through it, often put on a string with others of its kind in necklaces, etc.
2. beads, [plural]
   • Jewelry a necklace of beads.
   • a rosary.
3. a small drop of liquid or a bubble in a liquid:
   Beads of sweat popped out on his head.

v. 

4. to form beads or a bead on: [~ + object]
   The perspiration beaded his face.
   [no object]
   The moisture beaded on the glass.

Idioms

5. Idioms draw or get a bead on, [~ + object] to take careful aim at (a target):
   The hit man got a bead on his victim.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

bead  (bēd), n. 

1. Jewelry 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. beads:
   • Jewelry a necklace of beads:
     You don't have your beads on this evening.
   • a rosary.
   • [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, beads. a mass of such bubbles on the surface of a liquid.
7. Military the front sight of a rifle or gun.
8. Automotive a reinforced area of a rubber tire terminating the sidewall and fitting within the rim of a wheel. See illus. under tire. 
9. Electricity a glass, ceramic, or plastic insulator that contains and supports the inner conductor in a coaxial cable.
10. Chemistry 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. Metallurgy the rounded mass of refined metal obtained by cupellation.
12. Furniture, Architecture [Archit., Furniture.] a small molding having a convex circular section and, usually, a continuous cylindrical surface;
    astragal.
13. Building, Building, Metallurgy [Welding.] a continuous deposit of fused metal, either straight (stringer bead) or zigzag (weave bead.)
14. count, say, or tell one's beads, 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. Idioms draw or get a bead on, to take careful aim at:
    The marksman drew a bead on his target.

v.t. 

16. to form or cause to form beads or a bead on.
17. to ornament with beads.
18. Building [Carpentry.] to form a bead on (a piece).

v.i. 

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

• bef. 900; Middle English bede prayer, prayer bead (where, on a rosary each bead symbolizes a prayer, the word for the notion symbolized was transferred to the designating object), Old English gebed prayer; akin to bid¹, German Gebet

bead′like′, adj. 
Synonyms

• 4. droplet, globule, blob, dot.

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

bead / biːd/ noun

1. a small usually spherical piece of glass, wood, plastic, etc, with a hole through it by means of which it may be strung with others to form a necklace, etc
2. a small drop of moisture
3. a small bubble in or on a liquid
4. a small metallic knob acting as the sight of a firearm
5. draw a bead on ⇒ to aim a rifle or pistol at
6. Also called: astragal a small convex moulding having a semicircular cross section
7. count one's beads, say one's beads, tell one's beads ⇒ to pray with a rosary

verb

1. (transitive) to decorate with beads
2. to form into beads or drops

Etymology: Old English bed prayer; related to Old High German gibet prayer

ˈbeaded adjective