beaver

en-noun

beaver (countable and uncountable, plural beavers)

The beards were false ones. I could see the elastic going over their ears. In other words, I had fallen among a band of criminals who were not wilful beavers, but had merely assumed the fungus for purposes of disguise.

(countable) A beard or a bearded person.

Referring to a beard.
A beard or a bearded person.


beard

PIE word
 *bʰardʰéh₂
From Middle English berd, bard, bærd, from Old English beard, from Proto-West Germanic *bard, from Proto-Germanic *bardaz (compare West Frisian burd, Dutch baard, German Bart). Cognate further to Latin barba, Lithuanian barzda, Russian борода́ (borodá): the word may date to Proto-Indo-European as *bʰardʰeh₂, *bʰh₂erdʰeh₂. Doublet of barb.

Facial hair on the chin, cheeks, jaw and neck.


beard

en-verb

beard (third-person singular simple present beards, present participle bearding, simple past and past participle bearded)

beards (present singular third-person)
bearding (participle present)
bearded (participle past)
bearded (past)

Robin Hood is always shown as bearding the Sheriff of Nottingham.

Am I to be bearded in my own castle by an insolent monk?

1765, Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto:

No admiral, bearded by these corrupt and dissolute minions of the palace, dared to do more than mutter something about a court martial.

1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter III, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

Murphy was a choleric man with a sense of his own importance. He was not to be bearded thus in his own seat of office. He rose with a very red face.

1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

We need all our operatives to insure the success of my plan to beard this Claus in his den...

1943 December 6, Crockett Johnson, Barnaby:

. . . I bearded the judge in his chambers and told him that it shouldn't be allowed.

1963, Ross Macdonald, The Chill, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, page 92:

(transitive) To boldly and bravely oppose or confront, often to the chagrin of the one being bearded.


imperial

en-adj

imperial (comparative more imperial, superlative most imperial)

more imperial (comparative)
most imperial (superlative)

From Middle English imperial, from Old French imperial, from Latin imperiālis (“of the empire or emperor, imperial”), from imperium (“empire, imperial government”) + -ālis, from imperō (“command, order”), from im- (“form of in”) + parō (“prepare, arrange; intend”). Displaced Old English cāserlīċ.

der

Imperial pale ale, Imperial IPA, Imperial pilsner, Imperial milk stout, Imperial lager, Imperial mead

(in particular, of alcohol) Stronger than typical. (Derived from the name of Russian Imperial stout, a strong dark beer.)


imperial

en-noun

imperial (countable and uncountable, plural imperials)

A bottle of wine (usually Bordeaux) containing 6 liters of fluid, eight times the volume of a standard bottle.

(paper, printing) A writing paper size measuring 30 × 22 inches, or printing paper measuring 32 × 22 inches.

There are who say the sonnet's meted maze
Is all too fettered for the poet's powers,
Compelled to crowd his flush and airy flowers
Like pots of tall imperials, ill at ease.

1816, John Freeman Milward Dovaston, The Sonnet:


royal

en-adj

royal (comparative royaler or royaller, superlative royalest or royallest)

royaler (comparative)
royaller (comparative)
royalest (superlative)
royallest (superlative)

From Middle English royal, from Old French roial (Modern French royal), from Latin rēgālis, from rēx (“king”). Doublet of regal (“befitting a king”), real (“unit of currency”), ariary, and riyal. Cognate with Spanish real. Displaced native Old English cynelīċ.

mbretëror

of or relating to a monarch or his family

royal mast;  royal sail

(nautical) In large sailing ships, of a mast right above the topgallant mast and its sails.

röijeli-

nautical: of a mast right above the topgallant mast and its sails


royal

(paper) A standard size of writing paper, measuring 24 by 19 inches.

in ten days after we spoke the Solon, so rapid was his recovery, that, from lying helpless and almost hopeless in his berth, he was at the mast-heId, furling a royal.

1840, R[ichard] H[enry] D[ana], Jr., “CHAPTER XXXV”, in Two Years before the Mast. […] (Harper’s Family Library; no. CVI), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers […], →OCLC:

(nautical, sailing) In large sailing ships, square sail over the topgallant sail.

(card games) In auction bridge, a royal spade.


goatee

From goat + -ee (diminutive suffix), referring to the tuft of hair on the chin of many domestic goats.

Coordinate term: soul patch

One person sports a goatee, the hair refusing to grow on the sides of his physiognomy; the chin of another is as smooth as a baby's cheek,—he contents himself with a modest moustache and a faint attempt at an imperial; while a few of the upper classes rejoice in all the varieties.

1845 February, “Editors' Table”, in The Williams Monthly Miscellany, volume 1, number 8, page 367:

The terrorist, as he called himself, was old and bald, with a narrow, snow-white wisp of a goatee hanging limply from his chin.

1906 January–October, Joseph Conrad, chapter III, in The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale, London: Methuen & Co., […], published 1907, →OCLC; The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale (Collection of British Authors; 3995), copyright edition, Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1907, →OCLC, page 44:

"Yes, sir, behind you. He is a man of middle size, rather inclined to shortness. He is old, over sixty, with white hair, curved nose and a white, small beard of the variety that is called goatee."

A beard trimmed to grow only at the center of the chin.


sideburns

en-noun

sideburns pl (normally plural, singular sideburn)

Reformed from burnside, named after American Army general Ambrose Burnside (1824–1881), noted for his unusual facial hair.

named-after

Facial hair reaching from the top of the head down the side of the face to the side of the chin.

bakkebaarde

facial hair reaching from the top of the head down the side of the face to the side of the chin


pogonotrophy

/ˌpoʊɡəˈnɑtɹəfi/

The act of cultivating, or growing and grooming, a mustache, beard, sideburns or other facial hair.


stubble

en-noun

stubble (usually uncountable, plural stubbles)

From Middle English stuble, from Anglo-Norman stuble, estuble, from Old French estoble, esteule (whence Modern French éteule), from Latin stipula (“stalk, straw”). Cognate with Dutch stoppel, Central German Stoppel, Upper German Stupfel.

(countable and uncountable) Short, coarse hair, especially on a man’s face.


bearded

From Middle English berded, from Old English ġebearded, ġebeardede, ġebierd, ġebierde (“bearded”), from Proto-Germanic *bardōdaz (“bearded”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰardʰéh₂tos (“bearded”), equivalent to beard + -ed. Cognate with Dutch bebaarde (“bearded”), Middle Low German bārt (“bearded”), archaic German gebartet (“bearded”).

The herbaceous perennial irises benefit from at least one feeding a year in early spring as growth begins. Siberian and Japanese irises appreciate a second feeding just as the flowers fade. Beardeds do best with a second feeding in late summer.

2017, Barbara W. Ellis, “Iris: Irises”, in Taylor's Guide to Growing North America's Favorite Plants: Proven Perennials, Annuals, Flowering Trees, Shrubs, & Vines for Every Garden, New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company, →ISBN, page 181:

(informal, botany, horticulture) A bearded iris.


peachfuzz

(rare, nonstandard) The fuzz found on the skin of a peach.


soul patch

A narrow beard descending from the lower lip, above the chin.


beardless

en-adj

beardless (comparative more beardless, superlative most beardless)

more beardless (comparative)
most beardless (superlative)

From Middle English bērdlēs, from Old English beardlēas (“beardless”), from Proto-West Germanic *bardalaus (“beardless”), equivalent to beard + -less. Cognate with Scots berdles (“beardless”), Saterland Frisian boartloos (“beardless”), West Frisian burdleas (“beardless”), Dutch baardeloos (“beardless”), German Low German baartlos (“beardless”), German bartlos (“beardless”).

cog

shall a beardless boy,
Cocker’d silken wanton, brave our fields,
And flesh his spirit in a warlike soil,
Mocking the air with colours idly spread,
And find no check?

1596, Shakespeare, King John, Act 4, Scene 1:

(by extension, of a male) Not having reached puberty or manhood; youthful.


five o'clock shadow

en-noun

five o'clock shadow (plural five o'clock shadows)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-five o'clock shadow.wav

1942, US, advertising copy written by Jules B. Singer of the Federal Advertising Agency for the Gem brand of safety razors, made by the American Safety Razor Company.

Men Wanted Without 5 O’Clock Shadow! To get on her wanted list, you must put your best face forward. Avoid “5 o’clock shadow” — that messy afternoon beard-growth. Stay face-neat all day long by shaving with a genuine Gem Blade.

(informal) A beard growth visible late in the day on the face of a man that was clean-shaven in the morning.

American Safety Razor Company
five o'clock shadow


mouche

They lent him a worn aspect which not even a fiercely erect little mustache and a tiny mouche beneath the lower lip could counteract.

The hair and beard are represented by a plastic mass : the mouche under the lower lip radiates outward and the moustache consists of two separate strands ending in spirals.

1921, Elizabeth Douglas Van Buren, Figurative terra-cotta revetments in etruria and Latium: in the VI. and V. centuries B.C., page 9:

In the colonial period, the taste for red lips and cheeks came and went, as did fashions for mouches and wigs.

2006, Linda M. Scott, Fresh Lipstick: Redressing Fashion and Feminism, Macmillan, →ISBN, page 203:

LA is very thin, wears a thin mustache and a tiny beatnik mouche under his lower lip. His brown hair is shoulder length. Mike is surfer-blond, like Ricky in Germany; his hair is shorter, accentuating his somewhat pudgy countenance.

2014, Jack B. Rochester, Madrone, Wheatmark, Inc., →ISBN:

A soul patch, especially in a historical (pre-modern) context.

Small stickers or patches affixed to the face as a beauty mark.


stiletto

stiletto (plural stilettos or stilettoes or stiletti)

stilettos (plural)
stilettoes (plural)
stiletti (plural)

Borrowed from Italian stiletto. Doublet of stylet.

A woman's shoe with a tall, slender heel (called a stiletto heel).


chinstrap

A form of beard that follows the jawline but does not cover the rest of the chin.

A miniature look-alike of the Canada Goose, with a partial white necklace instead of a white chinstrap.

2003, Roger Tory Peterson, Peter Alden, Birds, page 10:

The dark slate-grey plumage contrasting strongly with white 'chinstrap' is shared only by Blue Eared-pheasant, but their ranges do not overlap.

2010, Phil McGowan, Steve Madge, Pheasants, Partridges & Grouse, page 313:

A band of colour below a bird's mouth, resembling the chinstrap of a helmet.


neckbeard

A style of facial hair wherein the beard is allowed to grow down the chin and is trimmed to an even length over the entirety of the face.

Many front-end web developers may not have implemented a web service before, leaving that boring stuff to the neckbeards and the sysadmins.

2011, Andrew Lunny, PhoneGap Beginner's Guide:

(slang, derogatory) A socially-inept, male nerd, typically characterized as unkempt and misogynistic.

niskaparta

socially-inept, self-important male nerd


pogonophile

(uncommon) One who loves or studies beards.


beardy

en-adj

beardy (comparative beardier or more beardy, superlative beardiest or most beardy)

beardier (comparative)
more beardy (comparative)
beardiest (superlative)
most beardy (superlative)

From beard + -y. Compare Saterland Frisian boartich (“bearded”), Dutch baardig (“bearded”), German bärtig (“bearded”).

The plump John Bull, the sallow Frenchman, the beardy Italian, and still more-beardy Jew, the high-boned Scotchman the merry-faced Irishman, the turbaned Turk — a specimen of the human animal from almost every clime under heaven — are passing and repassing before you in the course of every ten minutes.

1852, William Kidd, Kidd's Own Journal: For Inter-Communications on Natural History, Popular Science, and Things in General, volume 2, page 31:

His beard covered his face and rested upon his still more beardy bosom, but its darkness gave an excellent color to his deep-red face.

1855, By John Ballou, The Lady of the West: Or, The Gold Seekers, page 391:

1967 May, The Siege of Witch-Hobble Island, Boys' Life, page 44,
But his left foot was caught in that blame noose in the end of the rope, so only his beardy head went underwater and he was dragged along like that for a few wet yards.

"Very hairy, beardy, toothy kinds of heads," said Ardan. "I remember them, and they used to get hairier and beardier and toothier every second day.

1970, James Stephens, Deirdre, page 152:

The biggest, oldest, beardiest, reddest-faced of them addressed Professor Bellbuckle.

2008, Howard Whitehouse, Bill Slavin, The Island of Mad Scientists: Being an Excursion to the Wilds of Scotland, page 42:


playoff beard

In the closing credits of the documentary, Boston players were asked to rate and rank the best playoff beards on the team.

2013 November 27, Dan Carson, “Boston's Koji Uehara Thinks Red Sox Burly Man Beards Are 'Gross'”, in Bleacher Report:

(US, Canada, sports) A beard grown by members of a sports team as a sign of unity or good luck during the postseason.


barbigerous

barbigerous (comparative more barbigerous, superlative most barbigerous)

more barbigerous (comparative)
most barbigerous (superlative)

From Latin barbiger from barba (“beard”) + gerō (“carry, wear”).

1810, James Kennedy, Glenochel, Glasgow: R. Chapman, Volume 2, p. 118,
Profoundly thoughtful looks the sage, / Barbigerous, and priestly mien’d;

1972, Saul K. Padover, Karl Marx: An Intimate Biography, New York: McGraw-Hill, Chapter 20, p. 348,
the author magnificently barbigerous and the publisher elegantly bearded but bald

[…] check out a portrait of the earl and you’ll see on his chin a barbigerous bulk that makes the poor fellow look like an Elizabethan cross between two Sams: Uncle and Yosemite.

2009, Barry Edelstein, chapter 4, in Bardisms: Shakespeare for All Occasions, New York: HarperCollins, pages 123–124:

(rare, humorous) Having a beard; bearded; hairy.


pike-devant

From pike (“point”) (from French pique) + French devant (“before”).


pogonophobic

pogonophobic (comparative more pogonophobic, superlative most pogonophobic)

more pogonophobic (comparative)
most pogonophobic (superlative)

They are part of a noble pogonophobic tradition dating back to early Christian times, when clean-shaven Romans guarded Western civilisation against shaggy savages.

1997, Kharak Singh, Apostasy among Sikh youth: causes and cures, page 175:

[…] knows I'm pogonophobic. When I hired him he hadn't grown his beard. Nowadays I'm not important enough to fire him.

2001, Carole Morin, Penniless in Park Lane, page 61:

Did you hear of the pogonophobic barber, / Who suddenly decided that he wanted fame? / But on the stage he developed nomatophobia, / And couldn't bear to hear his own name.

2006, Natalie Kristina Goldstraw, Superlative: Echoes of the Postmodern Condition:


beardism

Meanwhile, early in 2001, the Equal Opportunities Branch of Britain's Home Office conducted "sensitivity groups" whose members were asked to note their "beardism" (i.e., beard-racism), or negative associations to facial hair.

2001, Allan Peterkin, One Thousand Beards: A Cultural History of Facial Hair, page 147:

When the Americans first took me on there was great debate about it. They thought it might be seen as shifty or untrustworthy. They said, 'Oh he's got a beard!'; 'Well, maybe it's a European thing'; 'Oh hey, that's OK then'. Beardism is rampant.

2013, Janet Trewin, Presenting on TV and Radio: An insider's guide:

(rare) Prejudice against bearded people.


jaw beard

A thin beard that grows along the jaw and around the chin.


pogonophobia

From pogono- + -phobia. First use appears c. 1852.

(rare) A strong dislike or aversion to beards or beardedness.


beardly

beardly (comparative more beardly, superlative most beardly)

more beardly (comparative)
most beardly (superlative)

Beards and nobility go hand in hand, so it will come as no surprise to most that members of the great lordly houses are wont to vaunt their beardly heritage.

2011, Upton Uxbridge Underwood, Gilbert Alter-Gilbert, Jack Passion, Poets Ranked by Beard Weight:

I leaned far off the safety of my board, so low that if my beard had been any longer its tip would have brushed the rumbling pebbles. But my beard was not long then, barely able to brush the hollow above my sternum, and I snatched up the coffer without bodily or beardly harm.

2013, D F Lewis, Horror Without Victims - Page 196:

Of, relating to, or resembling a beard; beardish.


pogonic

pogonic (comparative more pogonic, superlative most pogonic)

more pogonic (comparative)
most pogonic (superlative)

/pəʊˈɡɒ.nɪk/

From Ancient Greek πώγων (pṓgōn, “beard”) + -ic.

(rare, humorous) Of or relating to a beard.


scraggle-bearded

scraggle-bearded (comparative more scraggle-bearded, superlative most scraggle-bearded)

more scraggle-bearded (comparative)
most scraggle-bearded (superlative)

"Danny transferred his passion to this sallow, scraggle-bearded tyrant who had glibly accepted Fronie's tarnished girlhood for the sake of her warm youth, and ever since had remained a cheap stingy brute."

1928, Harry Harrison Kroll, The mountainy singer - Page 139:


designer stubble

Coordinate term: five o'clock shadow

A fashionable short growth of male facial hair.

stoppelbaard

a fashionable short growth of male facial hair


Ned Kelly beard

en-noun

Ned Kelly beard (plural Ned Kelly beards)

(Australia) A large, full beard, as worn by the bushranger Ned Kelly (1854-1880).


face fungus

(informal, humorous) facial hair; a beard or moustache


bee beard

A large number of honey bees depending from a person's face so as to resemble a beard; a common sideshow demonstration.


bearded lady

A woman with a beard, often appearing as a circus sideshow


Newgate fringe

From Newgate, the site of a prison in London; named after its appearance, like a hangman's noose around the neck.


jazz dot

From its popularity among jazz musicians.

The jazz dot or soul patch, the tuft of hair beneath the lower lip, is so common among “cats” who can play as to almost be considered a part of the saxophone embouchure.

2005, Michael Segell, The Devil's Horn: The Story of the Saxophone, from Noisy Novelty to King of Cool, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN:

[...] men with gray beards or homegrown dreadlocks or a sandy jazz dot on the chin, gathered around platters of organic turkey or homemade lasagna ...

2013, Barrie Jean Borich, My Lesbian Husband: Landscapes of a Marriage, Graywolf Press, →ISBN:


beardlet

In the present day […] there does appear also a lurking desire amongst a portion of our fellow-men for the revival of the beard, but, fearful of the aroused voice of the country, they seem tremulously to adopt―the beardlet―or the imperial, as it is magnificently termed.

1837, Edward Duke, Prolusiones Historicæ, Salisbury, page 168:

the firm slight lips between the military moustache and beardlet of that pointed face

1929, Hilaire Belloc, chapter 5, in Richelieu: A Study, Philadelphia: Lippencott, page 88:

Golden hair courses down his belly. It hangs in little beardlets from under each pap and fizzes out from under his arms.

2007, Anne Enright, chapter 10, in The Gathering, London: Vintage, page 58:


beardage

Manhood does not go by age, or bulk, or beardage.

1866, William Arnot, “Ourselves, and How to Make the Most of Them”, in Six Lectures Delivered In Exeter Hall, page 69:

Make sure you don't have to take a drug test the morning after East Van rock outfit Black Mountain brings its sludgy riffs and back-to-the-land beardage to the Commodore Nov. 30 and Dec. 1.

2010 November 26, “Picks of the week”, in Vancouver Courier, page 37:

Petrovitch scratched at the stubble on his chin. "Could never grow a proper beard. Now, Archie's? That was serious beardage. […]

2013, Simon Morden, The Curve of the Earth, unnumbered page:

(slang, humorous) The mass or volume of a beard.


misopogon

/ˌmɪsəˈpəʊɡɒn/

Borrowed from Ancient Greek μισοπώγων (misopṓgōn, “somebody who hates beards”), which is incidentally the title of a book by Emperor Julian, from μῖσος (mîsos, “hatred”) + πώγων (pṓgōn, “beard”).

affix

(rare) A person with hate or contempt for beards.

(figurative, literary) by extension, contempt of philosophers and associated paraphernalia (wisdom, the philosopher's beard, etc.)


chin curtain

His generous sideburns dipped low enough to connect with his chin curtain, which made it look as though he were wearing a bizarre furry helmet.

(informal) A beard that grows along the jawline and covers the chin completely.


Shenandoah beard

en-noun

Shenandoah beard (plural Shenandoah beards)

A beard that is grown full and long over the jaw and chin, meeting the sideburns, while the hair above the mouth is shaved.


pique-devant

Probably coined in England, from French pique (“pike, spade (cards)”) or piquer (“to prick”) + devant (“in front”)

Neither will I meddle with our varietie of beards, of which some are shauen from the chin like those of Turks, not a few cut short like to the beard of marques Otto, some made round like a rubbing brush, other with a pique de vant (O fine fashion!) or now and then suffered to grow long, the barbers being growen to be so cunning in this behalfe as the tailors.

1587, Raphael Holinshed et al., Holinshed’s Chronicle, London: Henry Denham, Book 2, Chapter 7, p. 172:

twice double his Patrimonie hath he spent in carefull cherishing & preseruing his pickerdeuant

1596, Thomas Nashe, Have with You to Saffron-Walden, London: John Danter:

Wag[ner]. Sirra boy, come hither.
Clo[wn]. How, boy? swowns boy, I hope you haue séene many boyes with such pickadevaunts as I haue.

1604, Christopher Marlowe, The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, London: Thomas Bushell:

I have seene the Cavalier you have so often spoken of, and I thinke you judge verie rightlie of him. Hee consists wholly of a Pickedevant [in the French original: la pointe de sa barbe], and two Mustachoes: and therefore utterly to defeate him, there needes but three clippes of a paire of Cizers.

1638, Richard Baker, transl., New Epistles of Mounsieur de Balzac […] Being the second and third volumes, London: Fra. Eglesfield, John Crooke, and Rich. Serger, Letter 51, p. 108:

In the Sinister Chief is set another sort of a full Face with a sharp pointed Beard, and is termed in Blazon, a Mans face with a Pick-a-devant, (or sharp pointed) Beard.

1688, Randle Holme III, The Academy of Armory, Chester, Book 2, p. 389:

(obsolete, historical) A small beard trimmed to a sharp point.


Omer beard

(Judaism) a beard grown during the time in Omer, when the beard must not be cut


Movember beard

A beard grown during the event of Movember by those men, who choose to grow it (despite the opposite tradition, which allows only the growing of a Movember moustache, and not a full beard).