Word.ws English Dictionary

beak

UK/biːk/

beak noun: a rigid structure projecting from the front of a bird's face, used for pecking, grooming, foraging, carrying items, eating food, etc.

beak: a rigid structure projecting from the front of a bird's face, used for pecking, grooming, foraging,...
Image: Basile Morin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

beak (countable and uncountable, plural beaks)

  1. A rigid structure projecting from the front of a bird's face, used for pecking, grooming, foraging, carrying items, eating food, etc.
    Synonyms:
    bill, neb, nib, pecker
  2. A similar pointed structure forming the nose and mouth of various animals, such as turtles, platypuses, whales, etc.
  3. The long projecting sucking mouth of some insects and other invertebrates, as in the Hemiptera.
  4. The upper or projecting part of the shell, near the hinge of a bivalve.
  5. The prolongation of certain univalve shells containing the canal.
  6. Any process somewhat like the beak of a bird, terminating the fruit or other parts of a plant.
  7. (broadly) Anything projecting or ending in a point like a beak, such as a promontory of land.
    • At the townes end, Cuddenbeak, an ancient house of the Bishops, from a well aduanced Promontory, which intituled it Beak1609, Richard Carew, The Survey of Cornwall, London: […] S[imon] S[tafford] for Iohn Iaggard, […], →OCLC
  8. (broadly) A continuous slight projection ending in an arris or narrow fillet; that part of a drip from which the water is thrown off.
  9. (broadly) A toe clip.
  10. (broadly) That part of a ship, before the forecastle, which is fastened to the stem, and supported by the main knee.
    • Holonyms: bow, stem, forestem, prow, prore < ship < vessel
  11. (broadly) A beam, shod or armed at the end with a metal head or point, and projecting from the prow of an ancient galley, used as a ram to pierce the vessel of an enemy.
    • Holonyms: bow, stem, forestem, prow, prore < ship < vessel
    Synonyms:
    beakhead
  12. (broadly) Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Libythea, notable for the beak-like elongation on their heads.
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  1. (slang) A person's nose, especially one that is large and pointed.
    • "You mind your own business, curse you!" growled Silas. "I've told you before now not to push that long, sheeny beak of yours into my affairs. If you was a man I'd know better how to speak to you."1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “Which Introduces Some Very Physical Phenomena”, in The Land of Mist, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, published 1926, →OCLC, page 186
    Synonyms:
    honker, schnozzle
  2. (Eastern, Ontario, especially, slang) A person's mouth.
    • Shut your beak!
    • 'Did you think that bloody question up by yourself, pal?' Seánie snapped, and the guy opened and closed his beak a few times — I suppose he must have been surprised that a priest would talk like that.1998, Joseph O'Connor, The Salesman, London: Secker & Warburg, →ISBN, page 43
  3. (Southern-England, slang, uncountable) Cocaine.
    • I just stay in bed till about 2pm. Then I sit around and smoke weed. Sometimes we do beak [cocaine] or garys [ecstasy or MDMA] but I don't do that on the street because your jaw swings like fuck and you would need a good kip half the time. I do it every weekend though and it's fucking great. I'm...2007 August 24, Audrey Gillan, anonymous quotee, “The Nogzy, the Crocky and the bizzies - a teen 'soldier' speaks”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN...

Verb

beak (third-person singular simple present beaks, present participle beaking, simple past and past participle beaked)

  1. (transitive) To strike with the beak.
  2. (transitive) To seize with the beak.
  3. (Northern Ireland, intransitive) To play truant.
    • Knew the Jampot well. I spent many an afternoon while I was beaking school in that fine establishment.2008 January 11, jemmy hope (username), “Re: Sandy Row”, in Belfast Forum
    • I was living at home at her age, by and large doing what my parents told me, apart from beaking school.2017, Paddy Armstrong, Life After Life: A Guildford Four Memoir

Noun (2)

beak (plural beaks)

  1. (UK, slang) A justice of the peace; a magistrate.
    • They take up men, Dick, for going about in women's clothes, and vice versaw, I suppose. You'll bail me, old fellaa, if I have to make my bow to the beak, won't you?1859, George Meredith, chapter XXXVIII, in The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. A History of Father and Son. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC
    • Harry looked rather bulky, you know, Tom, and the slop (policeman) says, 'Hallo, what you got here?' and by [blank] he took us both before the beak.1866, Temple Bar: A London Magazine for Town and Country Readers
  2. (slang, British public schools) A schoolmaster (originally, at Eton).
    • It’s easy enough to be a beak when you’re young and athletic, and can offer the latest University smattering. The difficulty is to keep your place when you get old and stiff, and younger smatterers are pushing up behind you. Crawl into a boarding-house and you’re safe. A master’s life is...1907, E.M. Forster, The Longest Journey, Part II, XX [Uniform ed., p. 201]

beak meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

beak in Hindi

structure projecting from a bird's face
चोंच cõc, चोँच cõc, तुंड tuṇḍ, टोँट ṭõṭ, ठोर ṭhor, चंचु cañcu

beak in Tamil

அலகு, சொண்டு, பறவைகளின் அலகு, ஆமையின் முகறை, கொடு மூக்கு, பண்டைப் போர்க்கப்பலின் தகர்முனை

beak in Marathi

structure projecting from a bird's face
चोच coc

beak in Urdu

structure projecting from a bird's face
چونچ coñc
More languagesFewer languages
beak in Bengali
ঠোঁট ṭhō̃ṭ, চঁচু cõcu
beak in Telugu
చంచువు cañcuvu
beak in Malayalam
കൊക്ക് kokkŭ
beak in Kannada
ಕೊಕ್ಕು, ಚುಂಡು, ಚುಂಚ
beak in Punjabi
ਚੁੰਝ cuñjh
beak in Gujarati
ચાંચ cā̃c, તુંડ tuṇḍ
beak in Sanskrit
वक्त्र vaktra, तुण्ड tuṇḍa
beak in Assamese
ঠোঁট thü̃t
beak in Nepali
मुख mukh
beak in Pashto
مښوکه max̌uka, نوله nula
beak in Tagalog
tuka
beak in Arabic
مِنْقَار minqār
beak in Malay
paruh, cotok
beak in Indonesian
paruh, cotok
beak in Persian
نوک nok, منقار menqâr, کلب kalab
beak in Thai
จะงอย jà-ngɔɔi
beak in Vietnamese
mỏ
beak in Myanmar
နှုတ်သီး hnutsi:

Examples of beak in a sentence

  • Typical Yankee detractor, nize your beak.2020 October 19, u/southsidejane, “How do we stop the violence in the city (Serious Answers only ) how do we make the different hoods in...
  • Sometimes we do beak [cocaine] or garys [ecstasy or MDMA] but I don't do that on the street because your jaw swings like fuck and you would need a good kip half the time.2007 August 24, Audrey Gillan, anonymous quotee, “The Nogzy, the Crocky and the bizzies - a teen 'soldier' speaks”, in Alan Rusbridger...
  • Thus does history repeat itself, and that foolish beak, with Tom Linden before him, was but Felix judging Paul.1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html)...
  • He was known as the Blind Beak, and was said to be able to recognise as many as 3,000 criminals by their voices alone.2014 April 12, Christopher Middleton, “Dream home: one of Chelsea's most historic houses is for sale: We deliver our verdict on a London...

All 40 example sentences with beak

Synonyms of beak

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of beak

Forms of beak

Noun
pluralbeaks
alternative form (obsolete)beck
Verb
third-person singular presentbeaks
present participlebeaking
past participlebeaked
pastbeaked

Plural of beak: beaks

Origin of beak

From Middle English bec, borrowed from Anglo-Norman bec, Old French bec, from Latin beccus, from Gaulish *bekkos, from Proto-Celtic *bekkos (“beak, snout”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bak-, *baḱ- (“pointed stick, peg”). Cognate with Breton beg (“beak”). Compare Saterland Frisian Bäk (“mouth; muzzle; beak”); Dutch bek (“beak; bill; neb”).

Unknown; originally cant; first recorded in 17thC; probably related to obsolete cant beck "constable".

Words formed from beak

Phrases with beak

Words that rhyme with beak

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about beak

What does beak mean?
Beak means a rigid structure projecting from the front of a bird's face, used for pecking, grooming, foraging, carrying items, eating food, etc.
What is beak in Hindi?
Beak in Hindi is चोंच (cõc), चोँच (cõc), तुंड (tuṇḍ). See Beak meaning in Hindi.
How do you use beak in a sentence?
Typical Yankee detractor, nize your beak.
What part of speech is beak?
Beak can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce beak?
Beak is pronounced /biːk/ (UK).
What is the plural of beak?
The plural of beak is beaks.

Words near beak in the dictionary

  1. Beahm
  2. Beahms
  3. Beaird
  4. Beairds
  5. Beaivi
  6. beak
  7. beak and feather disease
  8. beak off
  9. beak sedge
  10. beak sedges
  11. beak-head

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: beak (page history and authors); beak (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); കൊക്ക് (Malayalam) (page history and authors); beak (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਚੁੰਝ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); तुण्ड (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); मुख (Nepali) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-beak.ogg.

Cite this entry: “beak.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/beak. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.