beaker

[ bee-ker ]

noun

1. a large drinking cup or glass with a wide mouth.
2. contents of a beaker:

   consuming a beaker of beer at one gulp.

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

adjective

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

beaker

/ ˈbiːkə /

noun

1. a cup usually having a wide mouth

   a plastic beaker

2. a cylindrical flat-bottomed container used in laboratories, usually made of glass and having a pouring lip
3. the amount a beaker holds

beaker

/ bē′kər /

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of beaker¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of beaker¹

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

Example Sentences

While triggering those reactions with copper may work fine in a glass beaker, that metal can harm living cells.

From Science News For Students

Think about all of those beakers, flasks, test tubes and more.

From 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.

From 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.

From Popular-Science

To test this, her team added microplastics to beakers containing amphipods.

From Science News For Students

As if abstractedly, he now took up the beaker, pledged madame with his glance, and drank.

From Project Gutenberg

But—my cigar has reached its last dying speech, and there is but a drop left in the beaker.

From Project Gutenberg

The king to the brim filled a beaker with wine: “I beg of thee drink to me, dear sister mine!”

From Project Gutenberg

The string was then fastened around the beaker as shown, and the whole suspended from a shelf.

From Project Gutenberg

The boy took the beaker, but being openly on bad terms with the elves, argued no good to himself from such an offering.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• chalice