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To exist actually, or in the world of fact; to have ex To be contents his natural desire. Pope. To be, or not to be: that is the question. Shak.

The whole; all that is to be. [Poetic] Shak.

of a lake, which is washed by the waves; especially, a sandy or pebbly shore; the strand. Beach flea (Zoöl.), the common name of many species of amphipod Crustacea, of the family Orchestidæ, living on the sea beaches, and leaping like fleas. -- Beach grass (Bot.), a coarse grass (Ammophila arundinacea), growing on the…

A long, curling wave rolling in from the ocean. See Comber. [Amer.]

Bordered by a beach. The beached verge of the salt flood. Shak.

Having a beach or beaches; formed by a beach or beaches; shingly. The beachy girdle of the ocean. Shak.

otify of the approach of an enemy, or to give any notice, commonly of warning. No flaming beacons cast their blaze afar. Gay.

Money paid for the maintenance of a beacon; also, beacons, collectively.

Having no beacon.

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.

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.

An almshouse for poor people who pray daily for their benefactors.

Molding in imitation of beads.

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.

Office or jurisdiction of a beadle.

The state of being, or the personality of, a beadle. A. Wood.

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 field. Spenser. It is quite startling, on going over the beadroll of English worthies, to find how few are direc…

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.

A small poisonous snake of North America (Elaps fulvius), banded with yellow, red, and black.

Fem. of Beadsman.