Forms: 5 berde, 6 berd, 7 bearde, beard. [f. prec. sb.]
† 1. intr. To become bearded, get a beard. Obs. as used of men.
1483. Cath. Angl., 28/1. To berde, puberare.
1552. Huloet, Berden, or begyn to haue a berd, pubeo.
1672. Sir T. Browne, Lett. Friend (1881), § 11. 135. Lewis, King of Hungary … was said … to have bearded at fifteen.
2. trans. To cut or strip off the beard of (e.g., oysters). † b. To clip off the defective parts of (a fleece). c. To chip or plane away the edge of (timber) to a required shape.
1429. Act 8 Hen. VI., xxii. No stranger shall cause to be forced, clacked or bearded any manner of woolles to carry them out of the realm.
1855. Househ. Cookery, Carving, 104. We think it unnecessary to beard the oyster.
1863. Wynter, Subtle Brains, etc., 275. Another machine rebated and bearded the keel.
1867. [see BEARDING 4].
3. To oppose openly and resolutely, with daring or with effrontery; to set at defiance, thwart, affront. [Partly from the idea of taking a lion by the beard, partly from the use of beard as = face; see BEARD sb. 1 e.]
1525. St. Papers Hen. VIII., VI. 454. If they [Frenchmen] be kept shorte, and berdyd, their stomakkis will soone wax more mylde.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., IV. i. 12. No man so potent breathes vpon the ground, But I will Beard him.
1682. Addr. Lancaster, in Lond. Gaz., No. 1727/5. A Proceeding that Beards the Regal Power, Outfaces the Law.
1749. Smollett, Regicide, II. vii. (1777), 39. Sooner would’st thou beard The lion in his rage.
1820. Scott, Monast., xvii. Shall that English silkworm presume to beard me in my father’s house?
4. To furnish with a beard.
[c. 1380. see BEARDED 4].
1791. E. Darwin, Bot. Gard., I. 33. Beard the bright cylinder with golden wire.
1824. J. Johnson, Typogr., II. iii. 21. Short letters … all which will admit of being bearded above and below their face.
5. To brush or rub with the beard.
1859. [J. D. Burn], Autobiog. Beggar Boy, 56. Some of the young men were romping with the girls and bearding their rosy faces.
