Dictionary

beath en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /biːð/

Etymology

From Middle English bethen, from Old English beþian, beþigean, beþþan, bæþþan (“to heat, warm, foment, wash, cherish; bathe”), from Proto-West Germanic *baþþjan, *baþigōn, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₁- (“to warm”). Cognate with Middle Dutch betten, bessen (“to moisten with hot water, humidify”).

Meanings

1. (dialectal, transitive) To bathe (with warm liquid); foment.
   • And in his hand a tall young oake he bore, Whose knottie snags were sharpned all afore, And beath'd in fire for steel to be in sted 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
2. (transitive) To dry or heat (unseasoned) wood for the purpose of straightening it.

Forms