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Beak   /bik/   Listen
noun
Beak  n.  
1.
(Zool.)
(a)
The bill or nib of a bird, consisting of a horny sheath, covering the jaws. The form varies much according to the food and habits of the bird, and is largely used in the classification of birds.
(b)
A similar bill in other animals, as the turtles.
(c)
The long projecting sucking mouth of some insects, and other invertebrates, as in the Hemiptera.
(d)
The upper or projecting part of the shell, near the hinge of a bivalve.
(e)
The prolongation of certain univalve shells containing the canal.
2.
Anything projecting or ending in a point, like a beak, as a promontory of land.
3.
(Antiq.) A beam, shod or armed at the end with a metal head or point, and projecting from the prow of an ancient galley, in order to pierce the vessel of an enemy; a beakhead.
4.
(Naut.) That part of a ship, before the forecastle, which is fastened to the stem, and supported by the main knee.
5.
(Arch.) A continuous slight projection ending in an arris or narrow fillet; that part of a drip from which the water is thrown off.
6.
(Bot.) Any process somewhat like the beak of a bird, terminating the fruit or other parts of a plant.
7.
(Far.) A toe clip. See Clip, n. (Far.).
8.
A magistrate or policeman. (Slang, Eng.)





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Beak" Quotes from Famous Books



... from an enemy so formidable. Plying his almost unequalled strength of wing, he ascended high and higher in the air, by short gyrations, that the hawk might gain no vantage ground for pouncing at him; while his spiked beak, at the extremity of so long a neck as enabled him to strike an object at a yard's distance in every direction, possessed for any less spirited assailant all the terrors of ...
— The Betrothed • Sir Walter Scott
... ascend the river we are struck with more than one peculiar mode of taking fish. We see a number of cormorants perched on the sides of a boat. Now and then a bird dives into the water and comes up with a fish in its beak. If the fish be a small one, the bird swallows it as a reward for its services; but a fish of considerable size is hindered in its descent by a ring around the bird's neck and becomes the booty ...
— The Awakening of China • W.A.P. Martin
... girlie," it murmured drowsily, with dry clickings of its tongue against its beak, the words jolting out in foolish twos and threes. "Hi! p'liceman—murder! fire! thieves!—there's ...
— The Far Horizon • Lucas Malet
... and terminated in large, fiat feet. His arms were very long even for such a tall man, and the huge, bony hands were gnarled and knotted. Regardless of the season, he had removed his bowler hat, revealing his forehead, which was high, flat and narrow. His nose was a large, fleshy, hawklike beak, and from the side of each nostril a deep indentation extended downwards until it disappeared in the drooping moustache that concealed his mouth when he was not speaking, but the vast extent of which was perceptible now ...
— The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists • Robert Tressell
... seize an opportunity of addressing him. But when he came almost within touching distance, he found himself face to face with a dark-looking gipsy, fiery-eyed and dangerous in appearance. He had a lean, cruel face, a hawk's beak for a nose, and black, black hair streaked with grey; but what mostly attracted Cargrim's attention was a red streak which traversed the right cheek of the man from ear to mouth. At once he recalled John's description—'A military-looking gentleman with a scar on the right cheek.' ...
— The Bishop's Secret • Fergus Hume


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