Bean

Pronunciation

• enPR: bÄ“n, IPA: /biːn/
• Homophones: been (in some dialects)
• Rhymes: -iːn

Origin

From Middle English bene, from Old English bēan ("bean, pea, legume"), from Proto-Germanic *baunō ("bean"), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰabʰ- ("bean"). Cognate with Scots bene, bein ("bean"), West Frisian bean ("bean"), Dutch boon ("bean"), German Bohne ("bean"), Danish bønne ("bean"), Icelandic baun ("bean"), Latin faba ("bean"), Russian боб (bob, "bean").

Full definition of bean

Noun

1. Any plant of several genera of the taxonomic family Fabaceae that produces large edible seeds or edible seed pods.
• 2004, T. N. Shivenanda, B. R. V. Iyengar, Phosphorus Management in French Bean (Phaseolus Vulgaris L.), Ramdane Dris, S. Mohan Jain (editors), Production Practices and Quality Assessment of Food Crops, Volume 2: Plant Mineral Nutrition and Pesticide Management, page 79,Beans are a large group of leguminous vegetables that serve as a main source of proteins in human diet. This group comprises several species and some of them are Adzuki bean (Vigna angularis); Broad bean (Vicia faba); Cluster bean (Cyamposis tetragonoloba); French bean (Phaseolus vulgaris);....
2. The large edible seed of such a plant.
3. The edible seed pod of such a plant.
4. The bean-like seed of certain other plants, especially coffee; coffee in the general.
5. An object resembling a pea or bean in shape, often made from plastic or styrofoam and used in large numbers as packing material or as stuffing for beanbags and similar items.
6. (slang) The head or brain.
• 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, I saw her quiver and kept a wary eye on the ginger ale bottle. But even if she had raised it and brought it down on my bean, I couldn't have been more stunned than I was by the words that left her lips.
  ...
  Well, as I say, it was from his fertile bean that the idea sprang.
7. (British, slang, archaic) A guinea coin.
8. (British, slang, usually in the negative) Money.I haven't got a bean.
9. (slang) The clitoris.
• 2010, Cynthia W. Gentry & Dana Fredst, What Women Really Want in Bed: The Surprising Secrets Women Wish Men Knew about Sex, Quiver (2010), ISBN 9781592333394, page 64:For one, don't stage a full-frontal assault on her bean.
10. (software) Short for
• „AppletInitializer Methods in this interface are used to initialize Beans that are also applets.“„The SelectionInList uses three

Derived terms

Verb

1. (chiefly baseball) To hit deliberately with a projectile, especially in the head.The pitcher beaned the batter, rather than letting him hit another home run.
• 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, Though I shall have to exercise an iron self-restraint to keep me from beaning that pie-faced little hornswoggler Mrs Bertram Wooster, nee Wickham, with the shaker.
  ...
  dudgeon might easily lead her to reach for the ginger ale bottle and bean me with it.

Anagrams

• bane
• Bena