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BEAK
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Horny projecting mouth of a bird
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("beak" is a kind of...):
mouth (the externally visible part of the oral cavity on the face and the system of organs surrounding the opening)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "beak"):
cere (the fleshy, waxy covering at the base of the upper beak of some birds)
Holonyms ("beak" is a part of...):
bird (warm-blooded egg-laying vertebrates characterized by feathers and forelimbs modified as wings)
Derivation:
beak (hit lightly with a picking motion)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Beaklike mouth of animals other than birds (e.g., turtles)
Classified under:
Nouns denoting animals
Hypernyms ("beak" is a kind of...):
mouth (the externally visible part of the oral cavity on the face and the system of organs surrounding the opening)
Derivation:
beak (hit lightly with a picking motion)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Informal terms for the nose
Synonyms:
beak; honker; hooter; nozzle; schnoz; schnozzle; snoot; snout
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("beak" is a kind of...):
nose; olfactory organ (the organ of smell and entrance to the respiratory tract; the prominent part of the face of man or other mammals)
Domain region:
America; the States; U.S.; U.S.A.; United States; United States of America; US; USA (North American republic containing 50 states - 48 conterminous states in North America plus Alaska in northwest North America and the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean; achieved independence in 1776)
Sense 4
Meaning:
A beaklike, tapering tip on certain plant structures
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("beak" is a kind of...):
tip (the extreme end of something; especially something pointed)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Hit lightly with a picking motion
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging
Hypernyms (to "beak" is one way to...):
strike (deliver a sharp blow, as with the hand, fist, or weapon)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody PP
Somebody ----s something PP
Derivation:
beak (horny projecting mouth of a bird)
beak (beaklike mouth of animals other than birds (e.g., turtles))
Context examples:
I heard a noise just over my head, like the clapping of wings, and then began to perceive the woful condition I was in; that some eagle had got the ring of my box in his beak, with an intent to let it fall on a rock, like a tortoise in a shell, and then pick out my body, and devour it: for the sagacity and smell of this bird enables him to discover his quarry at a great distance, though better concealed than I could be within a two-inch board.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
There were Slavonian hunters, fair-skinned and mighty-muscled; short, squat Finns, with flat noses and round faces; Siberian half-breeds, whose noses were more like eagle-beaks; and lean, slant-eyed men, who bore in their veins the Mongol and Tartar blood as well as the blood of the Slav.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
As Challenger climbed to safety one dart of that savage curving beak shore off the heel of his boot as if it had been cut with a chisel.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Soon afterwards, the Queen arrived with some food in her beak, and the lord King came too, and they began to feed their young ones.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
By my soul! be it sink or swim, I shall turn her beak into Freshwater Bay, and if good Master Witherton, of Southampton, like not my handling of his ship then he may find another master-shipman.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Why, then, it’s a common assault, d’ye see, against the body of ’is Majesty’s liege, William Warr, and I ’as ’em before the beak next mornin’, and it’s a week or twenty shillin’s.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
One gleam of light lifted into relief a half-submerged mast, on which sat a cormorant, dark and large, with wings flecked with foam; its beak held a gold bracelet set with gems, that I had touched with as brilliant tints as my palette could yield, and as glittering distinctness as my pencil could impart.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
I heard several bangs or buffets, as I thought given to the eagle (for such I am certain it must have been that held the ring of my box in his beak), and then, all on a sudden, felt myself falling perpendicularly down, for above a minute, but with such incredible swiftness, that I almost lost my breath.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Then suddenly out of the whizzing, slate-colored circle a long neck shot out, and a fierce beak made a thrust at us.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
As the clock struck twelve he heard a rustling noise in the air, and a bird came flying that was of pure gold; and as it was snapping at one of the apples with its beak, the gardener’s son jumped up and shot an arrow at it.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
