Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
BECOMINGLY — BEEN
BECOMINGLY, adv. After a becoming or proper manner.
BECOMINGNESS, n. Fitness, congruity; propriety; decency; gracefulness arising from fitness.
BECRIPPLE, v.t. [See Cripple.] To make lame; to cripple [Little used.]
BECURL, v.t. To curl. [Not used.]
BED, n. [The sense is a lay or spread, from laying or setting.]
1. A place or an article of furniture to sleep and take rest on; in modern times, and among civilized men, a sack or tick filled with feathers or wool; but a bed may be made of straw or any other materials. The word bed includes often the bedstead.
2. Lodging; a convenient place for sleep.
3. Marriage; matrimonial connection.
George, the eldest son of his second bed.
4. A plat or level piece of ground in a garden, usually a little raised above the adjoining ground.
5. The channel of a river, or that part in which the water usually flows.
6. Any hollow place, especially in the arts; a hollow place, in which any thing rests; as the bed of a mortar.
7. A layer; a stratum; an extended mass of any thing, whether upon the earth or within it; as a bed of sulphur; a bed of sand or clay.
8. Pain, torment. Revelation 2:22. The grave. Isaiah 57:1, 2. The lawful use of wedlock. Hebrews 13:4.
The bed of the carriage of a gun is a thick plank which lies under the piece, being, as it were, the body of the carriage.
The bed of a mortar is a solid piece of oak, hollow in the middle, to receive the britch and half the trunnions.
In masonry, bed is a range of stones, and the joint of the bed is the mortar between two stones placed over each other.
Bed of justice, in France, was a throne on which the king was seated when he went to parliament. Hence the phrase, to hold a bed of justice.
To make a bed, is to put it in order after it has been used.
To bring to bed, to deliver of a child, is rarely used. But in the passive form, to be brought to bed, that is, to be delivered of a child, is common. It is often followed by of; as, to be brought to bed of a son.
To put to bed, in midwifery, is to deliver of a child.
Dining bed, or discubitory bed, among the ancients, a bed on which persons lay at meals. It was four or five feet high, and would hold three or four persons. Three of these beds were ranged by a square table, one side of the table being left open, and accessible to the waiters. Hence the Latin name for the table and the room, triclinium, or three beds.
From bed and board. In law, a separation of man and wife, without dissolving the bands of matrimony, is called a separation from bed and board, a mensa et thoro. In this case the wife has a suitable maintenance allotted to her out of the husband’s estate, called alimony.
BED, v.t. To place in a bed.
1. To go to bed with. [Unusual.]
2. To make partaker of the bed.
3. To plant and inclose or cover; to set or lay and inclose; as, to bed the roots of a plant in soft mold.
4. To lay in any hollow place, surrounded or inclosed; as to bed a stone.
5. To lay in a place of rest or security, covered, surrounded or inclosed; as a fish bedded in sand, or under a bank.
6. To lay in a stratum; to stratify; to lay in order or flat; as bedded clay, bedded hairs
BED, v.t. To cohabit; to use the same bed.
If he be married and bed with his wife.
BEDABBLE, v.t. [be and dabble.] To wet; to sprinkle
Bedabbled with the dew.
BEDABBLED, pp. Wet; sprinkled.
BEDABBLING, ppr. Wetting; sprinkling.
BEDAFF, v.t. To make a fool of. [Not in use.]
BEDAGGLE, v.t. [be and daggle.] To soil, as clothes, by drawing the ends in the mud, or spattering them with dirty water.
BEDAGGLED, pp. Soiled by reaching the mud in walking; bespattering.
BEDARE, v.t. [be and dare.] To dare; to defy. [Not used.]
BEDARK, v.t. [be and dark.] To darken. [Not used.]
BEDASH, v.t. [be and dash.] To wet, by throwing water, or other liquor upon; to bespatter, with water or mud.
BEDASHED, pp. Bespattered with water or other liquid.
BEDASHING, ppr. Bespattering; dashing water upon, or other liquid.
BEDAUB, v.t. [be and daub.] To daub over; to besmear with viscous, slimy matter; to soil with any thing thick and dirty.
BEDAUBED, pp. Daubed over; besmeared.
BEDAUBING, ppr. Daubing over; besmearing.
BEDAZZLE, v.t. [be and dazzle.] To confound the sight by too strong a light; to make dim by luster.
BEDAZZLED, pp. Having the sight confounded by too strong a light.
BEDAZZLING, ppr. Confounding or making dim by a too brilliant luster.
BEDCHAMBER, n. [bed and chamber.] An apartment or chamber intended or appropriated for a bed, or for sleep and repose.
BED-CLOTHES, n. plu. [bed and clothes.]
Blankets, or coverlets, etc., for beds.
BEDDED, pp. Laid in a bed; inclosed as in a bed.
BEDDER, BEDETTER, n. [from bed.] The nether stone of an oil mill.
BEDDING, ppr. Laying in a bed; inclosing as in a bed.
BEDDING, n. A bed and its furniture; a bed; the materials of a bed, whether for man or beast.
BEDECK, v.t. [be and deck.] To deck; to adorn; to grace.
BEDECKED, pp. Adorned; ornamented.
BEDECKING, ppr. Adorning; decking.
BEDEHOUSE, n. Formerly, a hospital or alms house, where the poor prayed for their founders and benefactors.
BEDEL, n. An officer in the universities of England. [A peculiar orthography of beadle.]
BEDELRY, n. The extent of a bedel’s office.
BEDEW, v.t. [be and dew.] To moisten, as with dew; to moisten in a gentle manner with any liquid; as, tears bedew her face.
BEDEWED, pp. Moistened, as if with dew; gently moistened.
BEDEWER, n. That which bedews.
BEDEWING, ppr. Moistening gently, as with dew; wetting.
BEDEWY, a. Moist with dew. [Little used.]
BEDFELLOW, n. [bed and fellow.] One who lies in the same bed.
BED-HANGINGS, n. Curtains.
BEDIGHT, v.t. bedi’te. [be and dight.] To adorn; to dress; set off with ornaments. [Little used.]
BEDIGHTED, pp. Adorned; set off with ornaments.
BEDIGHTING, ppr. Adorning.
BEDIM, v.t. [be and dim.] To make dim; to obscure or darken.
BEDIMMED, pp. Made dim; obscured.
BEDIMMING, ppr. Making dim; obscuring; darkening.
BEDIZEN, v.t. bediz’n. [be and dizen.] To adorn; to deck; a low word.
BEDIZENED, pp. Bedecked; adorned.
BEDIZENING, ppr. Adorning.
BEDLAM, n. [Corrupted from Bethlehem, the name of a religious house in London, afterward converted into a hospital for lunatics.]
1. A mad house; a place appropriated for lunatics.
2. A madman; a lunatic; one who lives in Bedlam.
3. A place of uproar.
BEDLAM, a. Belonging to a mad house; fit for a mad house.
BEDLAMITE, n. An inhabitant of a madhouse, a madman.
BEDMAKER, n. [bed and maker.] One whose occupation is to make beds, as a college or university.
BEDMATE, n. [bed and mate.] A bedfellow.
BED-MOLDING, [bed and molding.] In architecture, the members of a cornice, which are placed below the coronet, consisting of an ogee, a list, a large boultine, and another list under the coronet.
BEDOTE, v.t. [be and dote.] To make to dote. [Not in use.]
BEDPOST, n. [bed and post.] The post of a bedstead.
BEDPRESSER, n. [bed and press.] A lazy fellow; one who loves his bed.
BEDRAGGLE, v.t. [be and draggle.] To soil, as garments which are suffered, in walking, to reach the dirt; to soil by drawing along on mud.
BEDRAGGLED, pp. Soiled by reaching the dirt, in walking.
BEDRAGGLING, ppr. Soiling by drawing along in dirt or mud.
BEDRENCHv.t. [be and drench.] To drench; to soak; to saturate with moisture; applied to things which imbibe moisture.
BEDRENCHED, pp. Drenched; soaked.
BEDRENCHING, ppr. Soaked; drenching.
BEDRID, BEDRIDDEN, a. [bed and ride.] Confined to the bed, by age or infirmity.
BEDRITE, n. [bed and rite.] The privilege of the marriage bed.
BEDROOM, n. [bed and room.] A room or apartment intended or used for a bed; a lodging room.
1. Room in a bed. [Not in use.]
BEDROP, v.t. [be and drop.] To sprinkle, as with drops.
BEDROPPED, pp. Sprinkled as with drops; speckled; variegated with spots.
BEDSIDE, n. The side of the bed.
BEDSTAFF, n. [bed and staff.] A wooden pin anciently inserted on the sides of bedsteads, to keep the clothes from slipping on either side.
BEDSTEAD, n. bed’sted. [bed and stead.] A frame for supporting a bed.
BEDSTRAW, n. [bed and straw.] Straw laid under a bed to make it soft; also the name of a plant, a species of galium.
BEDSWERVER, n. [bed and swerve.] One that swerves from his bed; that is one who is false and unfaithful to the marriage vow.
BEDTIME, n. [bed and time.] The time to go to rest; the usual hour of going to bed.
BEDUCK, v.t. [be and duck.] To duck; to put the head under water; to immerse.
BEDUST, v.t. [be and dust.] To sprinkle, soil or cover with dust.
BEDWARD, adv. [bed and ward.] Toward bed.
BEDWARF, v.t. [be and dwarf.] To make little; to stunt or hinder growth.
BEDWORK, n. [bed and work.] Work done in bed, without toil of the hands or with ease.
BEDYE, v.t. [be and dye.] To dye; to stain.
BEDYED, pp. Dyed; stained.
BEE, n. An insect of the genus Apis. [See Apis.] The species are numerous, of which the honey-bee is the most interesting to man. It has been cultivated from the earliest periods, for its wax and honey. It lives in swarms or societies, of from 10,000 to 50,000 individuals. These swarms contain three classes of bees, the females or queen bees, the males or drones, and the neuters or working bees. Of the former, there is only one in each hive or swarm, whose sole office is to propagate the species. It is much larger than the other bees. The drones serve merely for impregnating the queen, after which they are destroyed by the neuters. These last are the laborers of the hive. They collect the honey, form the cells, and feed the other bees and the young. They are furnished with a proboscis by which they suck the honey from flowers, and a mouth by which they swallow it, and then convey it to the hive in their stomachs, where they disgorge it into the cells. The pollen of flowers settles on the hairs with which their body is covered, whence it is collected into pellets, by a brush on their second pair of legs, and deposited in a hollow in the third pair. It is called bee bread, and is the food of the larvae or young. The adult bees feed on honey. The wax was supposed to be formed from pollen by a digestive process, but it is now ascertained that it is formed from the honey by a similar process. The females and neuters have a barbed sting, attached to a bag of poison, which flows into the wound inflicted by the sting. When a hive is overstocked, a new colony is sent out under the direction of a queen bee. This is called swarming.
BEE-BREAD, n. [bee and bread.] The pollen of flowers collected by bees, as food for their young. [See Bee.]
BEE-EATER, n. [bee and eat.] A bird that feeds on bees. There are several species included in the genus merops, of which the apiaster of Europe is remarkable for the brilliancy of its plumage.
BEE-FLOWER, n. [bee and flower.] A plant; a species of Ophrys or twyblade, whose flowers represent singular figures of bees, flies and other insects.
BEE-GARDEN, n. [bee and garden.] A garden, or inclosure to set bee-hives in.
BEE-GLUE, n. [bee and glue.] A soft, unctuous matter with which bees cement the combs to the hives, and close up the cells; called also propolis.
BEE-HIVE, n. [bee and hive.] A case, box, or other hollow vessel, which serves as a habitation for bees. Hives are made of various materials, as of boards, the hollow trunk of a tree, and withes of straw, or of glass.
BEE-MASTER, n. [bee and master.] One who keeps bees.
BEECH, n. [Gr. payos; L. fagus.] A tree arranged by Linne under the genus fagus, with the chestnut. The beech grows to a large size, with branches forming a beautiful head, with thick foliage. The bark is smooth and of a silvery cast. The mast or nuts are the food of swine, and of certain wild animals, and yield a good oil for lamps. When eaten by man, they are said to occasion giddiness and headache.
BEECH-COAL, n. [beech and coal.] Charcoal from beech wood.
BEECHEN, a. bee’chn. Consisting of the wood or bark of the beech; belonging to the beech; as a beechen vessel.
BEECHMAST, n. The fruit or nuts of the beech.
BEECH-OIL, n. [beech and oil.] Oil expressed from the mast or nuts of the beech-tree. It is used in Picardy, and in other parts of France, instead of butter; but is said to occasion heaviness and pains in the stomach.
BEECH-TREE, n. [beech and tree.] The beech.
BEEF, n. [L. bos, bovis; Gr. Bous.]
1. An animal of the bovine genus, whether ox, bull or cow; but used of those which are full grown or nearly so. In this, which is the original sense, the word has a plural, beeves.
2. The flesh of an ox, bull, or cow, when killed. In popular language, the word is often applied to the live animal; as, an ox is good beef; that is, is well fattened. In this sense, the word has no plural.
BEEF, a. Consisting of the flesh of the ox, or bovine kind; as a beef-steak.
BEEF-EATER, n. [beef and eat.] One that eats beef.
1. A yeoman of the guards, in England.
2. The Buphaga, an African bird that feeds on the larvas which nestle under the hides of oxen.
3. In popular use, a stout fleshy man.