beak
[beek]
- the bill of a bird; neb.
- any similar horny mouthpart in other animals, as the turtle or duckbill.
- anything beaklike or ending in a point, as the spout of a pitcher.
- Slang. a person's nose.
- Entomology. proboscis(def 3).
- Botany. a narrowed or prolonged tip.
- Nautical. (formerly) a metal or metal-sheathed projection from the bow of a warship, used to ram enemy vessels; ram; rostrum.
- Typography. a serif on the arm of a character, as of a K.
- Also called bird's beak. Architecture. a pendant molding forming a drip, as on the soffit of a cornice.
- Chiefly British Slang.
- a judge; magistrate.
- a schoolmaster.
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Origin of beak
1175–1225; Middle English bec < Old French < Latin beccus < Gaulish
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for beak
Contemporary Examples
The key part of the costume, beyond the head-to-toe fabric, was the beak.
The Duck Dynasty congressman got caught sticking his beak in the wrong place.
I also like a bird's beak knife, for fiddly decorative things like making radish flowers and skinning apples in one long peel.
Historical Examples
I am lean and bony and I've got a beak where I should have a nose.
Her Father's DaughterGene Stratton-Porter
All I do know was, that I was brought before a beak and charged with stealing.
Australia RevengedBoomerang
He brought them alive in his beak, and gave them to his companion.
And the beak giv' 'em six weeks—coss the ship warn't overloaded.
The Nigger Of The "Narcissus"Joseph Conrad
I can see her figure-head distinctly—a bird with a beak as big as its head.'
A Pair of Blue EyesThomas Hardy
beak1
- the projecting jaws of a bird, covered with a horny sheath; bill
- any beaklike mouthpart in other animals, such as turtles
- slang a person's nose, esp one that is large, pointed, or hooked
- any projecting part, such as the pouring lip of a bucket
- architect the upper surface of a cornice, which slopes out to throw off water
- chem the part of a still or retort through which vapour passes to the condenser
- nautical another word for ram (def. 5)
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Word Origin
C13: from Old French bec, from Latin beccus, of Gaulish origin
beak2
- a Brit slang word for judge, magistrate, headmaster, schoolmaster
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Word Origin
C19: originally thieves' jargon
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for beak
n.
mid-13c., "bird's bill," from Old French bec "beak," figuratively "mouth," also "tip or point of a nose, a lance, a ship, a shoe," from Latin beccus (cf. Italian becco, Spanish pico), said by Suetonius ("De vita Caesarum" 18) to be of Gaulish origin, perhaps from Gaulish beccus, possibly related to Celtic stem bacc- "hook." Or there may be a link in Old English becca "pickax, sharp end." Jocular sense of "human nose" is from 1854 (but also was used mid-15c. in the same sense).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper