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A little perforated ball, to be strung on a thread, and worn for ornament; or used in a rosary for counting prayers, as by Roman Catholics and Mohammedans, whence the phrases to tell beads, to at one's beads, to bid beads, etc., meaning, to be at prayer.

mitted from the sun or other luminous body; as, a beam of light, or of heat. How far that little candle throws his beams ! Shak.

posterity out of it to this day." South. -- To beat the dust. (Man.) (a) To take in too little ground with the fore legs, as a horse. (b) To perform curvets too precipitately or too low. -- To beat the hoof, to walk; to go on foot. -- To beat the wing, to flutter; to move with fluttering agitation. -- To beat time…

A plat or level piece of ground in a garden, usually a little raised above the adjoining ground. "Beds of hyacinth and roses." Milton.

leric. [Obs.] (b) To be restless or uneasy. B. Jonson. (c) To be full of fancies; to be a little crazy. "She's whiles crack-brained, and has a bee in her head." Sir W. Scott.

cottage. [Prov. Eng.] Wright. It was a relief to dismiss them [Sir Roger's servants] into little beings within my manor. Steele.

jewelry, and distinguished by its deep color, which is probably due to the presence of a little oxide of chromium.

dicate by external marks or appearances. When the abbot of St. Martin was born, he had so little the figure of a man that it bespoke him rather a monster. Locke.

the best man; the best road; the best cloth; the best abilities. When he is best, he is a little worse than a man. Shak. Heaven's last, best gift, my ever new delight. Milton.

f pepper (Piper betle), the leaves of which are chewed, with the areca or betel nut and a little shell lime, by the inhabitants of the East Indies. I is a woody climber with ovate manynerved leaves.

A pretty or dear little bird; -- a pet name. Tennyson.

A little bird; a nestling.

A little bird; a nestling.

Having two little bags, sacs, or pouches.

bitten off or taken into the mouth; a morsel; a bite. Hence: A small piece of anything; a little; a mite.

A spreading thorny shrub or small tree (Prunus spinosa), with blackish bark, and bearing little black plums, which are called sloes; the sloe.

t, as by blazed trees; as, to blaze a line or path. Champollion died in 1832, having done little more than blaze out the road to be traveled by others. Nott.

of the first year without blemish. Lev. xiv. 10. The reliefs of an envious man are those little blemishes and imperfections that discover themselves in an illustrious character. Spectator.

nus Notonecta; -- so called from swimming on its back, which gives it the appearance of a little boat. Called also boat fly, boat insect, boatman, and water boatman.

The little rounded piece of wood, at the end of a latch string, which is pulled to raise the latch.