Bead-Roll

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Bead-Roll, Bede-Roll

a list of persons to be prayed for, c. 1500; a list or string of names; a catalogue; a long line; a pedigree.

Examples: bead-roll of cousins, 1826; of offences, 1644; of living oracles, 1884; of prayers.

Mentioned in ?

Bede-Roll

References in classic literature ?

Miss Phoebe Pyncheon, among the multitude of my marvellous gifts I have that of writing stories; and my name has figured, I can assure you, on the covers of Graham and Godey, making as respectable an appearance, for aught I could see, as any of the canonized bead-roll with which it was associated.

View in context

Let not the unwary reader opine, that in assigning the same name to three several individuals, I am acting as an humble imitator of the inimitable writer who has given immortality to the Peppers and the Mustards, on the one hand; or showing a poverty of invention or a want of acquaintance with the bead-roll of canine appellations on the other.