beaker
Americannoun
-
a large drinking cup or glass with a wide mouth.
-
contents of a beaker.
consuming a beaker of beer at one gulp.
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a flat-bottomed cylindrical container, usually with a pouring lip, especially one used in a laboratory.
adjective
noun
-
a cup usually having a wide mouth
a plastic beaker
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a cylindrical flat-bottomed container used in laboratories, usually made of glass and having a pouring lip
-
the amount a beaker holds
Etymology
Origin of beaker
First recorded in 1300–50; alteration of Middle English biker, from Old Norse bikarr, from Old Saxon bikeri (compare Old High German bechari, German Becher, Dutch beker ), from unattested Latin bic(c)arium, -ius, of uncertain origin. See pitcher 1
Explanation
A beaker is a glass container with a flat bottom that scientists use to hold liquids. In cartoons, mad scientists sometimes cackle gleefully while pouring bubbling chemicals into beakers. In Britain, a beaker is a drinking cup mainly used by children, but in the U.S. the word is primarily used to mean a cylindrical glass vessel for mixing, measuring, and pouring liquid chemicals. Along with things like Bunsen burners and test tubes, a well-stocked chemistry lab has plenty of beakers. The word comes from the Greek root bikos, "earthenware jug."
Vocabulary lists containing beaker
Chemistry - Introductory
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Chemistry - High School
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Chemistry - Middle School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But having recently announced Picture Imperfect, an adult sequel to her 1999 children's book, The Illustrated Mum, it doesn't look like an adult book based on Beaker will follow suit.
From BBC • May 30, 2025
Throughout his career Pickthall worked in TV and film, conducting music on Tracy Beaker: The Movie of Me in 2004 and supervising the music for Julian Fellowes' A Most Mysterious Murder in 2005.
From BBC • Nov. 11, 2024
The intensive use of dairy products continued particularly amongst the Bell Beaker populations, who did not seem have the same preference for pork.
From Science Daily • May 21, 2024
Let's get back to Newgrange, which was built way before the Bell Beaker folk and the imaginary Celts: I'm not telling you to scrub off that triple-spiral tattoo in shame.
From Salon • Mar. 17, 2023
Beaker traders were beginning to open their stations there.
From The Time Traders by Norton, Andre
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
