bead

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.”

2. Each in a string of small balls making up the rosary or paternoster.

   “Holonym: prayer beads”

3. A small, round object.
4. A small, round object.

   “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.”

5. A small, round object.

   “beads of sweat”

6. A small, round object.
7. A small, round object.

   “She drew a bead on the target and fired.”

   “But then I had the [massive] flintlock by me for protection. ¶[…]The linen-press and a chest on the top of it formed, however, a very good gun-carriage; and, thus mounted, aim could be taken out of the window[…], and a 'bead' could be drawn upon Molly, the dairymaid, kissing the fogger behind the hedge, little dreaming that the deadly tube was levelled at them.”

8. (broadly)A small, round object.

   “We now have a bead on the main technical issues for the project”

9. A ridge, band, or molding.
10. A ridge, band, or molding.
11. (dated, physical)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.”

12. A decorative, convex, rounded profile (often a half-circle) cut into an edge or surface of wood, typically defined by a narrow, deep channel called a quirk.

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.”

name

1. (abbreviation, acronym, alt-of)Acronym of Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment.

   “The language fails to specify whether states that accept the funding for AI infrastructure could risk losing their original BEAD allotments if found out of compliance, it fails to address the broad and vague definitions of covered technologies, and it fails to address the sole problem it sought to address: the so-called patchwork of state laws.”