2. The beads or bead-forming quality of certain liquors; as, the beading of a brand of whisky.
Beadle
(Bea"dle) n. [OE. bedel, bidel, budel, OF. bedel, F. bedeau, fr. OHG. butil, putil, G. büttel,
fr. OHG. biotan, G. bieten, to bid, confused with AS. bydel, the same word as OHG. butil. See. Bid,
v.]
1. A messenger or crier of a court; a servitor; one who cites or bids persons to appear and answer; —
called also an apparitor or summoner.
2. An officer in a university, who precedes public processions of officers and students. [Eng.]
In this sense the archaic spellings bedel (Oxford) and bedell (Cambridge) are preserved.
3. An inferior parish officer in England having a variety of duties, as the preservation of order in church
service, the chastisement of petty offenders, etc.
Beadlery
(Bea"dle*ry) n. Office or jurisdiction of a beadle.
Beadleship
(Bea"dle*ship), n. The state of being, or the personality of, a beadle. A. Wood.
Bead proof
(Bead" proof`)
1. Among distillers, a certain degree of strength in alcoholic liquor, as formerly ascertained by the floating
or sinking of glass globules of different specific gravities thrown into it; now ascertained by more accurate
meters.
2. A degree of strength in alcoholic liquor as shown by beads or small bubbles remaining on its surface,
or at the side of the glass, when shaken.
Beadroll
(Bead"roll`) n. (R. C. Ch.) A catalogue of persons, for the rest of whose souls a certain number
of prayers are to be said or counted off on the beads of a chaplet; hence, a catalogue in general.
On Fame's eternal beadroll worthy to be filed.
Spenser.
It is quite startling, on going over the beadroll of English worthies, to find how few are directly represented
in the male line.
Quart. Rev.
Beadsman
(Beads"man, Bedes"man) n.; pl. -men A poor man, supported in a beadhouse, and required
to pray for the soul of its founder; an almsman.
Whereby ye shall bind me to be your poor beadsman for ever unto Almighty God.
Fuller.
Beadsnake
(Bead"snake`) n. (Zoöl.) A small poisonous snake of North America banded with yellow,
red, and black.
Beadswoman
(Beads"wom`an, Bedes"wom`an) n.; pl. -women Fem. of Beadsman.
Beadwork
(Bead"work`) n. Ornamental work in beads.
Beady
(Bead"y) a.
1. Resembling beads; small, round, and glistening. "Beady eyes." Thackeray.
2. Covered or ornamented with, or as with, beads.
3. Characterized by beads; as, beady liquor.
