Cutting the beard. The Turks think it a dire disgrace to have the beard cut. Slaves who serve in the seraglio have clean chins, as a sign of their servitude.
Kissing the beard. In Turkey wives kiss their husband, and children their father on the beard. To make one's beard (Chaucer). This is the French “ Faire la barbe à quelqu'un,” and refers to a barber's taking hold of a man's beard to dress it, or to his shaving the chin of a customer. To make one's beard is to have him wholly at your mercy.
I told him to his beard. I told him to his face, regardless of consequences; to speak openly and fearlessly. Beard
(To). To beard one is to defy him, to contradict him flatly, to insult by plucking the beard. Among the Jews, no greater insult could be offered to a man than to pluck or even touch his beard.
To beard the lion in his den. To contradict one either in his own growlery, or on some subject he has made his hobby. To defy personally or face to face. Dar'st thou, then, To beard the lion in his den, The Douglas in his hall?
SirW.Scott: Marmion, canto vi. stanza 14.
Maugre his beard. In spite of him. To laugh at one's beard. To attempt to make a fool of a person- to deceive by ridiculous exaggeration. “ `By the prophet! but he laughs at our beards,' exclaimed the Pacha angrily. `These are foolish lies.' ” —Marryat: Pacha of Many Tales.
To laugh in one's beard [“Rire dans sa barbe”] To laugh in one's sleeve.
To run in one's beard. To offer opposition to a person; to do something obnoxious to a person before his face. The French say, “à la barbe de quelqu'un,” under one's very nose.
With the beard on the shoulder (Spanish). In the attitude of listening to overhear something; with circumspection, looking in all directions for surprises and ambuscades. “They rode, as the Spanish proverb expresses it, `with the beard on the shoulder,' looking round from time to time, and using every precaution ... against pursuit.” —SirW.Scott: Peveril of the Peak, chap. vii.
Tax upon beards. Peter the Great imposed a tax upon beards. Every one above the lowest class had to pay 100 roubles, and the lowest class had to pay a copec, for enjoying this “luxury.” Clerks were stationed at the gates of every town to collect the beard-tax. Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
