beady

[ bee-dee ]

/ ˈbi di /

Save This Word!

adjective, bead·i·er, bead·i·est.

beadlike; small, globular, and glittering: beady eyes.

covered with or full of beads.

QUIZ

GOOSES. GEESES. I WANT THIS QUIZ ON PLURAL NOUNS!

Test how much you really know about regular and irregular plural nouns with this quiz.

Question 1 of 9

Which of the following nouns has an irregular plural form?

TAKE THE QUIZ TO FIND OUT

Origin of beady

First recorded in 1820–30; bead + -y¹

OTHER WORDS FROM beady

bead·i·ly, adverbbead·i·ness, noun

Words nearby beady

beadsman, beadswoman, bead test, bead tree, beadwork, beady, beady eye, beady-eyed, beagle, Beaglehole, beagling

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use beady in a sentence

Common wisdom holds that this long-tailed rodent will snatch your diamond rings and gold watches, your loose change and car keys, and hoard them in glistening stockpiles like some miniature, beady-eyed dragon.
What’s in a packrat’s petrified pee? Just a few thousand years of secrets.|Rachel Feltman|August 12, 2021|Popular-Science
She went outside to her yard and saw hundreds of beady-eyed insects enrobed in a thick shell of gold emerging out of the ground and crawling up the trees.
The Brood X cicadas are here — and yes, there’s an app for that|Tanya Basu|June 3, 2021|MIT Technology Review
Pavlovic submitted a sketch that captured the creature’s spooky aesthetic, right down to its beady eyes and the fabric-like swirls of its outfit.
How a mythical backwoods monster saved a struggling West Virginia glass company|Molly Born|May 6, 2021|Washington Post
He would speak too close to you, his voice a monotone rattle sliding out from his endlessly smirking mouth, his beady dead eyes staring from under bushy eyebrows and over a nose like a hatchet.
My Friend, the Murderer|Eugene Robinson|November 24, 2020|Ozy

It’s the stuttering, beady-eyed performances of some of the characters.
“People want to believe”: How Love Fraud builds an absorbing docuseries around a romantic con man|Alissa Wilkinson|September 4, 2020|Vox
He agreed, and I could almost feel his beady little eyes going ‘KERCHING!’
How Susan Boyle Won My Heart|Piers Morgan|April 16, 2009|DAILY BEAST
A tiny spaniel lay beside the fire, his beady black eyes following the nervous movements of the master of the house.
Dope|Sax Rohmer
But as he turned toward the door she caught a glimpse of a glossy black mustache, and two beady black eyes.
The Girls of Central High on the Stage|Gertrude W. Morrison
Then its cold, beady eyes were fixed on Dick and it uttered a vicious hiss.
The Rover Boys on the Farm|Arthur M. Winfield (AKA Edward Stratemeyer)
For out of the box glided a real, live snake, fully three feet long, and with beady and dangerous looking eyes!
The Rover Boys on the Farm|Arthur M. Winfield (AKA Edward Stratemeyer)
Don't thet beady-eyed greaser's gall make you want to spit all over yourself?
The Man of the Forest|Zane Grey

British Dictionary definitions for beady

beady

/ (ˈbiːdɪ) /

adjective beadier or beadiest

small, round, and glittering: used esp of eyes

resembling or covered with beads

Derived forms of beady

beadily, adverbbeadiness, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012