The mode of wearing it was definitely prescribed to the Jews (Leviticus 19:27; 21:5). Hence the import of Ezekiel's (5:1-4) description of the "razor" i.e., the agents of an angry providence being used against the guilty nation of the Jews. It was a part of a Jew's daily toilet to anoint his beard with oil and perfume (Psalm 133:2). Beards were trimmed with the most fastidious care (2 Samuel 19:24), and their neglet was an indication of deep sorrow (Isaiah 15:2; Jeremiah 41:5). The custom was to shave or pluck off the hair as a sign of mourning (Isaiah 50:6; Jeremiah 48:37; Ezra 9:3). The beards of David's ambassadors were cut off by hanun (2 Samuel 10:4) as a Mark of indignity.

On the other hand, the Egyptians carefully shaved the hair off their faces, and they compelled their slaves to do so also (Genesis 41:14).

Noah Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language

1. (n.) The hair that grows on the chin, lips, and adjacent parts of the human face, chiefly of male adults.

2. (n.) The long hairs about the face in animals, as in the goat.

3. (n.) The cluster of small feathers at the base of the beak in some birds

4. (n.) The appendages to the jaw in some Cetacea, and to the mouth or jaws of some fishes.

5. (n.) The byssus of certain shellfish, as the muscle.

6. (n.) The gills of some bivalves, as the oyster.

7. (n.) In insects, the hairs of the labial palpi of moths and butterflies.

8. (n.) Long or stiff hairs on a plant; the awn; as, the beard of grain.

9. (n.) A barb or sharp point of an arrow or other instrument, projecting backward to prevent the head from being easily drawn out.

10. (n.) That part of the under side of a horse's lower jaw which is above the chin, and bears the curb of a bridle.

11. (n.) That part of a type which is between the shoulder of the shank and the face.

12. (n.) An imposition; a trick.

13. (v. t.) To take by the beard; to seize, pluck, or pull the beard of (a man), in anger or contempt.

14. (v. t.) To oppose to the gills; to set at defiance.

15. (v. t.) To deprive of the gills; -- used only of oysters and similar shellfish.