1. Of man and animals: Having a beard; spec. in names of animals, as Bearded Eagle, and Bearded Tit, Titmouse, or Pinnock.
1530. Palsgr., 306/1. Berded, barbu.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., II. vii. 150. A Soldier, Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the Pard.
1802. Bingley, Anim. Biog. (1813), II. 39. The Bearded Eagle, or Lammer-Geyer.
1868. Miss Braddon, Run to Earth, I. i. 9. Black-bearded, foreign-looking seamen.
1879. Browning, Ivan Ivanov., 39. Each bearded mouth.
2. Of plants, seeds, etc.: Furnished with bristles or hairy tufts, awned; as in bearded wheat.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, 461. His long bearded eares doth much resemble Barley.
1667. Milton, P. L., IV. 983. Her bearded Grove of ears.
1772–84. Cook, Voy. (1790), I. 196. The ground being covered with grass, the seeds of which were sharp and bearded.
1842. Tennyson, L. of Shalott, I. iv. Only reapers, reaping early, In among the bearded barley.
3. transf. in gen. sense: Covered with beard-like tufts or appendages.
1847. Longf., Evang., Prel. 2. The hemlocks, Bearded with moss.
1870. Tyndall, Heat, ii. § 29. 33. The pipe from which the air issued became bearded with icicles.
4. Of a comet, meteor, etc.: Having a train or tail; cf. BEARD sb. 7. arch. or poet.
c. 1380. Wyclif, De Pseudo-freris, v. Wks. (1880), 308. Þe sterre herid or beerdid erriþ fro heuene in his mouyng and bitokeneþ pestilence.
a. 1638. Randolph, Muses’ Look.-Gl., II. ii. (1640), 22. Let fooles gaze At bearded starres.
1783. W. F. Martyn, Geog. Mag., I. Introd. 21. Comets … are vulgarly distinguished into three kinds, bearded, tailed, and hairy.
1842. Tennyson, L. of Shalott, III. iii. Some bearded meteor, trailing light Moves over still Shalott.
5. Barbed or jagged like an arrow or fish-hook.
1613. M. Ridley, Magn. Bodies, 28. The bearded end of the [compass] needle doth only offer itself.
1659. Gauden, Tears Ch., 105. Reputation is the bearded hook, which holds most men faster than conscience.
1753. Douglass, Brit. Settl. N. Amer., 262. The best Iron Bars break fibrous and bearded.
1793. [see BEARD sb. 9].
1813. H. & J. Smith, Rej. Addr., 48. Rest there awhile, my bearded lance.
b. Of type: Furnished with a BEARD sb. 11 e.
