prayer beads
3
3.5
- noun
:
rosario
- Ku stared back, fingering his prayer beads.
- Buddhist prayer beads
- Tibetan prayer beads
- Muslim prayer beads
And I never forget her holding the prayer beads, frantically praying until I turned right.
- And I never forget her holding the prayer beads, frantically praying until I turned right.
Examples
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In our case, she took an immediate liking to Elizabeth, especially surprising us by presenting her with a Pope John Paul II coffee mug and a set of prayer beads featuring St. Christopher, the patron of travel.
Academic text (1997) -
In the morning, Umma gathers her prayer beads for her walk to the temple.
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And I never forget her holding the prayer beads, frantically praying until I turned right.
-
One day, Joao Cabafume got hold of prayer beads, which he put around his neck.
Fiction book (1995) -
At that time, I was not a regular user of the masbaha (prayer beads).
Blog text (13) -
Thumbing his prayer beads, Rody walked toward the sight of the explosion.
Blog text (27) -
Exhausted, Cailar leaned back in his chair, reflexively fingering the prayer beads around his neck.
Fiction book (2000) -
These ranged from a young child's prayer beads and little red shoes to a woman's spoon for measuring medicine or powdered milk.
Academic text (2009) -
Soon after, Amir Bibi died, her holy Quran on her chest, her prayer beads clenched in her fingers, and photographs of her children and grandchildren wrapped in an envelope of cloth underneath her pillow.
Fiction book (1995) -
Dangling from the fingers was a string of wooden prayer beads.
Synonyms
43
7.0
A string of beads used to count prayers or the prayers said with them
1
9.7
A string of beads used to count prayers often in Hinduism or Buddhism
A string of beads used by Muslims to count prayers
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a string of beads used to count prayers' is directly and compositionally derivable from combining 'prayer' (communication to a deity) with 'beads' (small round objects). This noun compound follows a straightforward, cross‑linguistically common pattern (objects associated with an activity), so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Prayer beads are a string of small beads that people touch or move one by one while saying a prayer. Moving each bead helped them 'count prayers' and 'stay focused', so the name shows how the beads are used today.