Chapter Bead-house to Bear of B by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Bead-house to Bear

Bead-house An almshouse for beads-men.

Bead-roll A list of persons to be prayed for; hence, also, any list.

Beadle A person whose duty it is to bid or cite persons to appear to a summons; also a church servant, whose duty it is to bid the parishioners to attend the vestry, or to give notice of vestry meetings. (Anglo- Saxon, bædel, from beodan, to bid or summon.)

Beadsman or Bedesman. An inhabitant of an almshouse; so called because in Catholic times most charities of this class were instituted that the inmates might “pray for the soul of the founder.” (See Bead. )

“Seated with some grey beadsman.”
   Crabbe: Borough.

Beak A magistrate. (Anglo-Saxon beag, a gold collar worn by civic magistrates.)
    W. H. Black says, “The term is derived from a Mr. Beke, who was formerly a resident magistrate at the Tower Hamlets."

Beaker A drinking-glass; a rummer. (Greek, bikos, a wine jar.)

“Here, Gerard, reach your beaker.”
Browning: Blot in the Scutcheon, i. 1.

Beam Thrown on my beam-ends. Driven to my last shift. A ship is said to be on her beam-ends when she is laid by a heavy gale completely on her beams or sides. Not unfrequently the only means of righting her in such a case is to cut away her masts.
   On the starboard beam. A distant point out at sea on the right-hand side, and at right angles to the keel.
   On the port beam. A similar point on the left-hand side.
   On the weather beam. On that side of a ship which faces the wind.

Beam (of a stag). That part of the head from which the horns spring. (Anglo-Saxon béam, a tree; the horns are called branches.)

Bean Every bean has its black. Nemo sine vitiis nascitur, “everyone has his faults.” The bean has a black eye. (Ogni grano ha la sua semola.)
   He has found the bean in the cake, he has got a prize in the lottery, has come to some unexpected good fortune. The allusion is to twelfth cakes in which a bean is buried. When the cake is cut up and distributed, he who gets the bean is the twelfth-night king.

Beans slang for property, money, is the French biens, goods. “A bean' = a guinea, is in Grose.

“Like a beane [alms-money] in a monkeshood.” - Cotgrare.

   (See Barristers' Gowns.)
   Beans. Pythagoras forbade the use of beans to his disciples- not the use of beans as a food, but the use of beans for political elections. Magistrates and other public officers were elected by beans cast by the voters into a helmet, and what Pythagoras advised was that his disciples should not interfere with politics or “love beans”- i.e. office.
   Aristotle says the word bean means venery, and that the prohibition to “abstain from beans” was equivalent to “keeping the body chaste.”
    The French have the proverb, “If he gives me peas I will give him beans,” S'il me donne des pois, je lui donnerai des fèves, i.e. I will give him tit for tat, a Rowland for an Oliver.
   Beans are in flower, les fèvres fleurissent, and this will account for your being so silly. Our forefathers imagined that the perfume of the flowering bean was bad for the head, and made men silly or light-headed.
   He knows how many beans go to make up five. He is “up to snuff;” he is no fool; he is not to be imposed upon. The reference is to the ancient custom of moving beans in counting.

“I was a fool, I was, and didn't know how many beans make five [that is how many beans must be moved to make up five].”- Farjeon.

“Few men better knew how many blue beans it takes to make five.”- Galt.

    Blue Beans: “Three blue beans in a blue bladder.” A rattle for children.

“F. Hark! does it rattle?
S. Yes, like three blue beans in a blue bladder.”
Old Fortunatus (Ancient Dramas),