<p><strong>Noun:</strong></p><ul><li>a thick growth of hair on the face, especially on an adult man, often including a mustache.</li><li>Zoology: a tuft, growth, or part resembling or suggesting the thick growth of hair on the human face, such as the tuft of long hairs on the lower jaw of a goat or the cluster of hairlike feathers at the base of the bill in certain birds.</li><li>Botany: a tuft or growth of awns or the like, as on wheat or barley.</li><li>a barb or catch on an arrow, fishhook, knitting needle, crochet needle, etc.</li><li>Printing: the sloping part of a type that connects the face with the shoulder of the body.</li><li>British: the space on a type between the bottom of the face of an x-high character and the edge of the body, comprising both beard and shoulder.</li><li>the cross stroke on the stem of a capital G.</li><li>Slang: a romantic partner chosen to conceal a person's sexual orientation, especially that of a gay or lesbian person.</li></ul><p><strong>Verb (used with object):</strong></p><ul><li>to oppose boldly; defy.</li><li>to seize, pluck, or pull the beard of.</li><li>to supply with a beard.</li></ul><p><strong>Verb (used without object):</strong></p><ul><li>Slang: to act as a romantic partner to someone in order to conceal their sexual orientation, especially that of a gay or lesbian person.</li></ul>