See Also: beak(2)(dictionary)
BEAK(medicine)
beak(dictionary)
beak(1)(dictionary)
beak(encyclopedia)
beak(dictionary)
beak sign(medicine)
beak (as used in expressions)(encyclopedia)
Parrot Beak - Sailing(gambling)
parrot-beak nail(medicine)

beak(1) (iou)



beak noun1. [bi:k] ME.
[Old & mod. French bec from late Latin beccus, of Celtic origin.]
The horny projecting termination of the jaws of a bird, esp. when strong and hooked as in a bird of prey (cf. BILL noun2). ME.
b. The elongated head, proboscis, or sucker-mouth of certain insects, e.g. a weevil. M17.
c. The (freq. horny) extremities of the mandibles of some other animals, e.g. a turtle or a squid. E19.
A sharp point or projection, a peak. LME.
b. Botany & Zoology. A projecting tip; e.g. that of a carpel in a cranesbill etc., or an umbo of a shell or valve. E19.
A human nose, esp. when hooked. joc. LME.
= beak-head (a) below. M16.
The tapered spout of a retort, still, etc. M17.
Comb.: beak-head (a) an (ornamented) projection at the prow of an ancient warship; (b) the space before the forecastle of a sailing ship (in men-of-war used as a latrine); (c) an ornament in Norman architecture resembling a head with a beak; beak-iron: see BICKERN; beak-sedge a sedge of the genus Rhynchospora, in which the persistent base of the style forms a beak to the fruit; esp. (more fully white beak-sedge) R. alba of wet heaths and moors in Europe and N. America.
beakful noun as much as can be held in a bird's beak M17.
beakless adjective L16.
beaklike adjective resembling (that of) a beak M19.
beaky adjective furnished with a beak, beaklike E18.