Bead

1. n. A glassy drop of molten flux, as borax or microcosmic salt, used as a solvent and color test for several mineral earths and oxides, as of iron, manganese, etc., before the blowpipe; as, the borax bead; the iron bead, etc.
2. n. A prayer.
3. n. A little perforated ball, to be strung on a thread, and worn for ornament; or used in a rosary for counting prayers, as by Roman Catholics and Mohammedans, whence the phrases to tell beads, to at one’s beads, to bid beads, etc., meaning, to be at prayer.
4. n. Any small globular body
5. n. A bubble in spirits.
6. n. A drop of sweat or other liquid.
7. n. A small knob of metal on a firearm, used for taking aim (whence the expression to draw a bead, for, to take aim).
8. n. A small molding of rounded surface, the section being usually an arc of a circle. It may be continuous, or broken into short embossments.

The word meanings were obtained from OPTED(The Online Plain Text English Dictionary), which is based on “The Project Gutenberg Etext of Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary” which is in turn based on the 1913 US Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary (See Project Gutenburg), as a text file.