bedight en · ADJ
Pronunciation
- /bɪˈdaɪt/
- [bɪˈdʌɪt] (Canada)
Etymology
From Middle English bedighten, bidihten; equivalent to be- + dight.
Meanings
-
(archaic, often, poetic, postpositional) That has been equipped or bedecked.
[…] [F]rom every Southern hill, / And mount and stream and vale bedight […]
1908, James Ryder Randall, “John W. Morton”, in Maryland, my Maryland, and other poems, Baltimore, Md.; New York: John Murphy Company, page 26:In half a minute Mrs Cratchit entered – flushed, but smiling proudly – with the pudding, like a speckled cannon-ball, so hard and firm, blazing in half of half-a-quartern of ignited brandy, and bedight with Christmas holly stuck into the top.
1843, Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost Story of Christmas:Who comes through Michan’s land, bedight in sable armour? O’Bloom, the son of Rory: it is he.
1922, James Joyce, Ulysses:There rose a fabled horde of mounted lancers and archers bearing shields bedight with bits of broken mirrorglass that cast a thousand unpieced suns against the eyes of their enemies.
1985, Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian:Then she gave unto him a dress so new, With gold and pearls bedight; Every seam on the dress it was With precious stones all bright.
1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 168:She, seated between her aunt and Mr. Civil (now retired from the ministry on a pension), listening to the wind (for it was autumn) howling vengefully round the porch; while this envied, bedight girl eating her manifold chocolate gifts, would merrily go forth to further triumphs, laughing at the clown, so philosophically funny, despite the cruel ringmaster's whip cuts.
1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 185:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| more bedight | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic | |
| most bedight | Degree=Sup | lexicographic |