(a) The hair on a man's face, beard; also, the beard of certain women; (b) beveren ~, beaver-colored beard, reddish-brown beard; double ~, beard of two-headed god Janus; feined ~, false beard; hor ~, gray beard; piled ~, plucked beard; shere ~, sparse beard; tender ~, ?soft beard, ?youthful beard; blak ~, fair ~, forked ~, etc.; (c) ~ her, the hair of the beard.

(a) Tuft of hair on the chin or jaw of an animal; ~ of gotes, gotes ~, the name of a plant or plants, ?meadowsweet, ?goat's-beard (Tragopogon pratensis); (b) the whiskers of a cat or a leopard; (c) the wattles of a cock; (d) hair or fuzz on a leaf; (e) some kind of excrescence on a siege engine.

In personal names.

In phrases: (a) nether ~, pubic hair; spring, springing (out) of ~, puberty; (b) henten bi the ~, to seize (sb.) by the beard; maken (one's) ~, maken (sb.) a ~, shaven (one's) ~, to get the better of (sb.), make a fool of, outwit; also, to overcome (sb.) in a fight, defeat; shaken (bi) the ~, to shake (sb.) by the beard; turnen ayen the ~, to turn one's face, turn around, go back; (c) aforn ~, face to face with (sb.), at close quarters with; in the ~, to one's face, directly, at close quarters; casten in ~, putten ayen ~, to reproach (sb.) openly with (sth.); kepen (meten) in the ~, to meet (sb.) face to face, meet head-on, make a frontal assault on, attack at close quarters; rennen in ~, to oppose (sb.) openly; reproven in the ~, to rebuke (sb.) to his face; spitten in (amid) the ~, to spit in (someone's) face; (d) despite his ~, maugre their ~, in spite of anything he (they) can do.

Proverbs: a bare ~ wol sone ben shaven, a scrawny beard is soon shaved, ?a little fortune is soon spent; wel wot the cat whos ~ he likketh, ?the cat knows very well who is his friend, ?he knows which side his bread is buttered on; when berdes waggen all, when every beard is wagging, when festivities are at their height.