beaker

[ bee-ker ]

See synonyms for beaker on Thesaurus.com

noun

a large drinking cup or glass with a wide mouth.
contents of a beaker: consuming a beaker of beer at one gulp.

a flat-bottomed cylindrical container, usually with a pouring lip, especially one used in a laboratory.

adjective

(initial capital letter) of or relating to the Beaker folk.

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 pitcher¹

Words Nearby beaker

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use beaker in a sentence

While triggering those reactions with copper may work fine in a glass beaker, that metal can harm living cells.
Lego-like way to snap molecules together wins 2022 chemistry Nobel | Nikk Ogasa | October 6, 2022 | Science News For Students
Think about all of those beakers, flasks, test tubes and more.
Cool Jobs: Scientific glassblowers shape science | Lindsey Konkel Neabore | August 25, 2022 | Science News For Students
Tucked away in an inconspicuous corner is a typical lab bench—a table with flasks, scales, and beakers beneath a fume hood—where graduate students can practice chemistry in much the same way their grandparents’ generation did.
This chemist is reimagining the discovery of materials using AI and automation | Simon Lewsen | October 27, 2021 | MIT Technology Review
He knows this firsthand, as he will occasionally provoke defensive responses with his own fingers instead of the dead mice or membrane-covered beakers he and his students use to collect venom.
Everything you need to know about scorpion stings and venom | John Kennedy | July 22, 2021 | Popular-Science
To test this, her team added microplastics to beakers containing amphipods.
Polluting microplastics harm both animals and ecosystems | Alison Pearce Stevens | November 3, 2020 | Science News For Students

As if abstractedly, he now took up the beaker, pledged madame with his glance, and drank.
St. Martin's Summer | Rafael Sabatini
But—my cigar has reached its last dying speech, and there is but a drop left in the beaker.
Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce | E. R. Billings.
The king to the brim filled a beaker with wine: “I beg of thee drink to me, dear sister mine!”
The Tale of Brynild, and King Valdemar and his Sister | Anonymous
The string was then fastened around the beaker as shown, and the whole suspended from a shelf.
The Boy Mechanic, Book 2 | Various
The boy took the beaker, but being openly on bad terms with the elves, argued no good to himself from such an offering.
The Science of Fairy Tales | Edwin Sidney Hartland

British Dictionary definitions for beaker

beaker

/ (ˈbiːkə) /

noun

a cup usually having a wide mouth: a plastic beaker
a cylindrical flat-bottomed container used in laboratories, usually made of glass and having a pouring lip

the amount a beaker holds

Origin of beaker

C14: from Old Norse bikarr; related to Old High German behhāri, Middle Dutch bēker beaker, Greek bikos earthenware jug

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

Scientific definitions for beaker

beaker

[ bē′kər ]

A wide, cylindrical glass container with a pouring lip, used especially in laboratories.

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