beardlet

From beard +‎ -let.

beardlet (plural beardlets)

1. A little beard.
   • 1837, Edward Duke, Prolusiones Historicæ‎^[1], Salisbury, page 168:

     In the present day […] there does appear also a lurking desire amongst a portion of our fellow-men for the revival of the beard, but, fearful of the aroused voice of the country, they seem tremulously to adopt―the beardlet―or the imperial, as it is magnificently termed.

   • 1929, Hilaire Belloc, chapter 5, in Richelieu: A Study‎^[2], Philadelphia: Lippencott, page 88:

     the firm slight lips between the military moustache and beardlet of that pointed face

   • 2007, Anne Enright, chapter 10, in The Gathering‎^[3], London: Vintage, page 58:

     Golden hair courses down his belly. It hangs in little beardlets from under each pap and fizzes out from under his arms.

• baltered, retabled