Dictionary

becalm en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /bɪˈkɑm/ (US)
• /bɪˈkɑːm/ (UK)
• /bɪˈkɑlm/ (US)
• (Southern-England) audio
• /bɪˈkɔm/ (US)

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁ep-der. Proto-Indo-European *h₁épsder. Proto-Indo-European *h₁épider. Proto-Indo-European *h₁pi Proto-Germanic *bider. Proto-Germanic *bi- Proto-West Germanic *bi- Old English be- Middle English bi- English be- English calm English becalm From be- + calm.

Meanings

1. (obsolete, transitive) To make calm or still; make quiet; calm.
   • “Pardon me,” he said, with a quietness that struck the company with a becalming awe. 1897, Opie Read, chapter 6, in Old Ebenezer, Chicago: Laird & Lee, page 57:
   • Almighty Beauty quite becalms my Rage: In looking on thee, I forget thy Crimes: 1717, Delarivier Manley, Lucius, the First Christian King of Britain, London: John Barber, act IV, scene 1, page 39:
   • […] there is neither house nor landes, nor great store of gold & siluer, nor honor and noblenes of blood, nor greatnes of office, and estate, nor the grace and vehemencie of speach, which doth so much lighten, and so sweetlie becalme the life of man, as an vndefiled conscience […] 1589, John Clapham, transl., A philosophicall treatise concerning the quietnes of the mind, London: Thomas Newman:
2. (transitive) To deprive (a ship) of wind, so that it cannot move (usually in passive).
   • 1555, Richard Eden (translator), The decades of the newe worlde or west India conteynyng the nauigations and conquestes of the Spanyardes by Peter Martyr d’Anghiera, London: Edward Sutton, “The seconde v[o]yage to Guinea,” p. 351, […] there we were becalmed the .xx. day of Nouember from .vi. of the clocke in the mornynge vntyll foure of the clocke at after none.
   • In the following two days, they made fast progress, strong easterly winds driving them down the Channel to where it opened out into the Atlantic; there, they were briefly becalmed. 2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin, published 2012, page 214:

Forms

Deriveds

becalmment