bard

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. One of an ancient Celtic order of minstrel poets who composed and recited verses celebrating the legendary exploits of chieftains and heroes.
2. n. A poet, especially a lyric poet.
3. n. A piece of armor used to protect or ornament a horse.
4. v. To equip (a horse) with bards.
5. v. To cover (meat) in thin pieces of bacon or fat to preserve moisture during cooking.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A poet and singer among the ancient Celts; one whose occupation was to compose and sing verses in honor of the heroic achievements of princes and brave men, and on other subjects, generally to the accompaniment of the harp. The Welsh bards formed a hereditary order regulated by laws, and held stated festivals for competition, called eisteddfods, which after a long suspension were revived in the eighteenth century. (See eisteddfod.) There was also a hereditary gild of bards in Ireland, many of whom attained great skill.
2. n. Formerly, in Scotland, a strolling musician; a minstrel: classed with vagabonds, as an object of penal laws.
3. n. In modern use, a poet: as, the bard of Avon (Shakspere); the Ayrshire bard (Burns).
4. n. A scold: applied only to women.
5. n. Any one of the pieces of defensive armor used in medieval Europe to protect the horse. There is no record of any general use of such armor in antiquity or among Oriental peoples, or in the European middle ages before the fifteenth century. Housings of different kinds of stuff, sometimes quilted and wadded in exposed parts, the saddle with its appurtenances, and occasionally a chamfron, were all the defense provided for horses until that time. The piece of armor most commonly used after the chamfron (which see) was the bard of the breast. See poitrel. The croupière, or part covering the haunches, was added at the close of the fifteenth century; but after the wars of the Roses the bards reached their fullest development, and the upper part of the body of the horse was covered as completely with steel as the body of his rider. See croupière.
6. n. Hence plural The housings of a horse, used in tourneys, justs, and processions during the later middle ages. They were most commonly of stuff woven or embroidered with the arms of the rider.
7. n. plural Armor of metal plates, worn in the sixteenth century and later. See armor.
8. To caparison with bards, as a horse; to furnish or accoutre with armor, as a man.
9. n. A strip of bacon used to cover a fowl or meat in roasting.
10. To cover with thin bacon, as a bird or meat to be roasted.

Wiktionary

1. n. 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.
2. n. Hence: A poet; as, the bard of Avon.
3. n. A piece of defensive (or, sometimes, ornamental) armor for a horse's neck, breast, and flanks; a barb. (Often in the plural.)
4. n. Defensive armor formerly worn by a man at arms.
5. n. cooking A thin slice of fat bacon used to cover any meat or game.
6. n. The exterior covering of the trunk and branches of a tree; the rind.
7. n. Specifically, Peruvian bark.
8. v. To cover a horse in defensive armor.
9. v. cooking To cover (meat or game) with a thin slice of fat bacon.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. 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.
2. n. Hence: A poet.
3. n. A piece of defensive (or, sometimes, ornamental) armor for a horse's neck, breast, and flanks; a barb. [Often in the pl.]
4. n. Defensive armor formerly worn by a man at arms.
5. n. (Cookery) A thin slice of fat bacon used to cover any meat or game.
6. v. (Cookery) To cover (meat or game) with a thin slice of fat bacon.
7. n. The exterior covering of the trunk and branches of a tree; the rind.
8. n. Specifically, Peruvian bark.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a lyric poet
2. v. put a caparison on
3. n. an ornamental caparison for a horse