beard

/ˈbɪərd/

/biəd/

Other forms: bearded; beards; bearding

A beard is the facial hair on a person's chin and cheeks. Santa Claus is famous in part for his long, white beard.

You're most likely to see a beard on an adult man, although some women grow enough facial hair to sport a beard too. Some animals, like goats, have beards as well. Someone whose presence helps another person disguise his identity — maybe because he's a spy — is often informally called a beard as well.

Definitions of beard

1. noun

   the hair growing on the lower part of a man's face
   synonyms: face fungus, whiskers

   types:

   fuzz

   the first beard of an adolescent boy

   imperial, imperial beard

   a small tufted beard worn by Emperor Napoleon III

   beaver

   a full beard

   goatee

   a small chin beard trimmed to a point; named for its resemblance to a goat's beard

   stubble

   short stiff hairs growing on a man's face when he has not shaved for a few days

   vandyke, vandyke beard

   a short pointed beard (named after the artist Anthony Vandyke)

   Attilio, soul patch

   a small patch of facial hair just below the lower lip and above the chin

   type of:

   facial hair

   hair on the face (especially on the face of a man)
2. noun

   hairy growth on or near the face of certain mammals
   type of:

   hair

   a covering for the body (or parts of it) consisting of a dense growth of threadlike structures (as on the human head); helps to prevent heat loss
3. noun

   tuft of strong filaments by which e.g. a mussel makes itself fast to a fixed surface
   synonyms: byssus

   type of:

   fiber, fibre

   a slender and greatly elongated substance capable of being spun into yarn
4. noun

   a tuft or growth of hairs or bristles on certain plants such as iris or grasses
   types:

   awn

   slender bristlelike appendage found on the bracts of grasses

   type of:

   fuzz, hair, tomentum

   filamentous hairlike growth on a plant
5. verb

   go along the rim, like a beard around the chin
   “Houses bearded the top of the heights”

   type of:

   rim

   run around the rim of
6. noun

   a person who diverts suspicion from someone (especially a woman who accompanies a male homosexual in order to conceal his homosexuality)
   type of:

   individual, mortal, person, somebody, someone, soul

   a human being