bead

Etymology

From Middle English bede (“a prayer”), also “a bead for counting prayers” in a peire of bedes (literally “a pair of beads”), from Old English bedu, bed, ġebed (“a request, entreaty, prayer”), from Proto-West Germanic *bedu, *bed, *gabed, from Proto-Germanic *bedō, *bedą. Cognate with Dutch gebed and bede, German Gebet.

noun

1. (archaic) Prayer, later especially with a rosary.
   That he must believe in the Pope;—go to Mass;—cross himself;—tell his beads;—be a good Catholick, and that this, in all conscience, was enough to carry him to heaven. 1760, Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, Penguin, published 2003, page 115
2. Each in a string of small balls making up the rosary or paternoster.
3. A small, round object.
   1. A small, round object with a hole to allow it to be threaded on a cord or wire, particularly for decorative purposes.
   2. Various small, round solid objects.
      Similar studies of rats have employed four different intracranial resorbable, slow sustained release systems—surgical foam, a thermal gel depot, a microcapsule or biodegradable polymer beads. 2013 May-June, Charles T. Ambrose, “Alzheimer’s Disease”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 200
   3. A small drop of water or other liquid.
      beads of sweat
   4. A bubble, in spirits.
   5. A small, round ball at the end of a barrel of a gun used for aiming.
      She drew a bead on the target and fired.
      1. (by extension) Knowledge sufficient to direct one's activities to a purpose.
         We now have a bead on the main technical issues for the project
4. A ridge, band, or molding.
   1. A rigid edge of a tire that mounts it on a wheel; tire bead.
   2. (architecture) A narrow molding with semicircular section.
5. (chemistry, dated) A glassy drop of molten flux, as borax or microcosmic salt, used as a solvent and color test for several mineral earths and oxides, as of iron, manganese, etc., before the blowpipe.
   the borax bead;  the iron bead, etc.

verb

1. (intransitive) To form into a bead.
   The raindrops beaded on the car's waxed finish.
2. (transitive) To apply beads to.
   She spent the morning beading the gown.
3. (transitive) To form into a bead.
   He beaded some solder for the ends of the wire.
4. (transitive) To cause beads to form on (something).
   Only the hum of the miserable creatures stirred the heavy murk that beaded our foreheads with sweat as we pushed our way through it. 1941, Emily Carr, “Greenville”, in Klee Wyck