beaver

UK /ˈbiːvə/ US /ˈbiːvə/
noun 10name 6verb 5

Definitions

noun

1

A semiaquatic rodent of the genus Castor, having a wide, flat tail and webbed feet, native to the Northern Hemisphere.

Then, for the safeguard of his personage, He did appoint a warlike equipage Of foreign beasts, not in the forest bred, But part by land and part by water fed; For tyranny is with strange aid supported. Then unto him all monstrous beasts resorted Bred of two kinds, as Griffons, Minotaurs, Crocodiles, Dragons, Beavers, and Centaurs: With those himself he strengthened mightily, That fear he need no force of enemy.

2

The fur of the beaver.

3

A hat, of various shapes, made from a felted beaver fur (or later of silk), fashionable in Europe between 1550 and 1850.

a broad beaver slouched over his eyes

The woman's hair and woman's beaver had both been jerked off, exposing the cropped head of a man...

4

Beaver pelts as an article of exchange or as a standard of value.

5

Beaver cloth, a heavy felted woollen cloth, used chiefly for making overcoats.

verb

1

To form a felt-like texture, similar to the way beaver fur is used for felt-making.

Without these attentions the woad will not beaver well, a term descriptive of the fineness of the capillary filaments into which it draws out when broken between the finger and thumb.

2

To work hard.

When A. G. Dickens published his English Reformation in 1964 the archival beavering of a generation of graduate students was given its imprimatur in the claim to understand how the English people felt about religious change—largely, according to Dickens, positively.

3

To cut a continuous ring around a tree that one is felling.

4

After being doubled, to immediately double the stakes again, a move that keeps the doubling cube on one’s own side of the board.

5

To spot a beard in a game of beaver.

Beavering of foreign visitors does not count. This is a rule, but it is never carried out.

noun

1

Alternative spelling of bevor (“part of a helmet”).

Lord Stafford’s father, Duke of Buckingham, Is either slain or wounded dangerously; I cleft his beaver with a downright blow:

With trembling hands her beaver he untied, / Which done, he saw, and seeing knew her face.

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