bard

• POS: Noun, Verb (transitive)

CIDE DICTIONARY

bard, n. [Of Celtic origin; cf. W. bardd, Arm. barz, Ir. & Gael. bard, and F. barde.].

•  A professional poet and singer, as among the ancient Celts, whose occupation was to compose and sing verses in honor of the heroic achievements of princes and brave men.  [1913 Webster]
•  Hence: A poet; as, the bard of Avon.  [1913 Webster]

bard, n. [F. barde, of doubtful origin.].

•  A piece of defensive (or, sometimes, ornamental) armor for a horse's neck, breast, and flanks; a barb. [Often in the pl.]  [1913 Webster]
•  Defensive armor formerly worn by a man at arms.  [1913 Webster]
•  A thin slice of fat bacon used to cover any meat or game.  [1913 Webster]

bard, v. t. 

 To cover (meat or game) with a thin slice of fat bacon.  [1913 Webster]

bard, n. [Akin to Dan. & Sw. bark, Icel. börkr, LG. & HG. borke.].

•  The exterior covering of the trunk and branches of a tree; the rind.  [1913 Webster]
•  Specifically, Peruvian bark.  [1913 Webster]

Bark bed. See Bark stove (below). -- Bark pit, a pit filled with bark and water, in which hides are steeped in tanning. -- Bark stove (Hort.), a glazed structure for keeping tropical plants, having a bed of tanner's bark (called a bark bed) or other fermentable matter which produces a moist heat.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

bard, n.
1 a hist. a Celtic minstrel. b the winner of a prize for Welsh verse at an Eisteddfod.
2 poet. a poet, esp. one treating heroic themes.

Idiom

the Bard (or the Bard of Avon) Shakespeare.

Derivative

bardic adj.

bard, n. & v.
--n. a rasher of fat bacon placed on meat or game before roasting.
--v.tr. cover (meat etc.) with bards.

Etymology

F barde, orig. = horse's breastplate, ult. f. Arab.

THESAURUS

bard

Meistersinger, Parnassian, arch-poet, ballad maker, ballad singer, balladeer, balladmonger, beat poet, bucoliast, elegist, epic poet, fili, folk singer, folk-rock singer, gleeman, idyllist, imagist, jongleur, laureate, librettist, major poet, maker, minnesinger, minor poet, minstrel, modernist, muse, occasional poet, odist, pastoral poet, pastoralist, poet, poet laureate, poetress, rhapsode, rhapsodist, satirist, scop, serenader, skald, sonneteer, street singer, strolling minstrel, symbolist, troubadour, trouveur, trovatore, vers libriste, vers-librist, wait, wandering minstrel

ROGET THESAURUS

bard

Poetry

N poetry, poetics, poesy, Muse, Calliope, tuneful Nine, Parnassus, Helicon, Pierides, Pierian spring, versification, rhyming, making verses, prosody, orthometry, poem, epic, epic poem, epopee, epopoea, ode, epode, idyl, lyric, eclogue, pastoral, bucolic, dithyramb, anacreontic, sonnet, roundelay, rondeau, rondo, madrigal, canzonet, cento, monody, elegy, amoebaeum, ghazal, palinode, dramatic poetry, lyric poetry, opera, posy, anthology, disjecta membra poetae song, ballad, lay, love song, drinking song, war song, sea song, lullaby, music, nursery rhymes, doggerel, Hudibrastic verse, prose run mad, macaronics, macaronic verse, leonine verse, runes, canto, stanza, distich, verse, line, couplet, triplet, quatrain, strophe, antistrophe, verse, rhyme, assonance, crambo, meter, measure, foot, numbers, strain, rhythm, accentuation, dactyl, spondee, trochee, anapest, hexameter, pentameter, Alexandrine, anacrusis, antispast, blank verse, ictus, elegiacs, elegiac verse, elegaic meter, elegaic poetry, poet, poet laureate, laureate, bard, lyrist, scald, skald, troubadour, trouvere, minstrel, minnesinger, meistersinger, improvisatore, versifier, sonneteer, rhymer, rhymist, rhymester, ballad monger, runer, poetaster, genus irritabile vatum, poetic, poetical, lyric, lyrical, tuneful, epic, dithyrambic, metrical, a catalectin, elegiac, iambic, trochaic, anapestic, amoebaeic, Melibean, skaldic, Ionic, Sapphic, Alcaic, Pindaric, a poem round and perfect as a star, Dichtung und Wahrheit, furor poeticus, his virtues formed the magic of his song, I do but sing because I must, I learnt life from the poets, licentia vatum, mutum est pictura poema, O for a muse of fire!, sweet food of sweetly uttered knowledge, the true poem is the poet's mind, Volk der Dichter und Denker, wisdom married to immortal verse.

Musician

N musician, artiste, performer, player, minstrel, bard, accompanist, accordionist, instrumentalist, organist, pianist, violinist, flautist, harper, fiddler, fifer, trumpeter, piper, drummer, catgut scraper, band, orchestral waits, vocalist, melodist, singer, warbler, songster, chaunter, chauntress, songstress, cantatrice, choir, quire, chorister, chorus, chorus singer, liedertafel, nightingale, philomel, thrush, siren, bulbul, mavis, Pierides, sacred nine, Orpheus, Apollo, the Muses Erato, Euterpe, Terpsichore, tuneful nine, tuneful quire, composer, performance, execution, touch, expression, solmization, playing, musical, adagio, andante.