Dictionary

bedizen en · VERB

Pronunciation

/-ˈdɪ-/ (Received-Pronunciation)
(Southern-England) audio
/bɪˈdaɪzən/ (General-American)
(General-American) audio
audio -
/-ˈdɪ-/ (General-American)
audio -
/bɪˈdaɪz(ə)n/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

PIE word *h₁epi From be- (intensifying prefix) + dizen (“to attire, dress, especially showily”). Dizen is derived from dialectal dize (“to put (tow) on a distaff”), probably from Middle English *disen, from Old English *disan, *disian, from *dise, *disen (“bunch of flax on a distaff”), from Proto-Germanic *disanō (“distaff”); further etymology unknown.

Meanings

(also, figuratively, literary, transitive) To dress or ornament (someone or something), especially in a gaudy, showy, or tasteless manner.
- They would rather see the rising generation exhibit a partiality for the tawdry tinsel in which a false philosophy bedisens its votaries, than find them intent only on the splendours of an unseen, and, to their low and sceptical minds, unreal state of existence. 1838 October, “Art[icle]. III.—The System of National Education in Ireland;—Its Principles and Practice. By J. C. Colquhoun, Esq,, M.P. Cheltenham: Wright. 1838. [book review]”, in The Church of England Quarterly Review, volume IV, number VIII, London: William Pickering, […], →OCLC, page 411:
- I'm thinking you're too fine for the like of me, Shawn Keogh of Killakeen, and let you go off till you'd find a radiant lady with droves of bullocks on the plains of Meath, and herself bedisened in the diamond jewelleries of Pharaoh's ma. 1907 January 26 (first performance), J[ohn] M[illington] Synge, “The Playboy of the Western World”, in Aidan Arrowsmith, editor, The Complete Works of J. M. Synge: Plays, Prose and Poetry (Wordsworth Poetry Library), Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions, published 2008, →ISBN, Act III, page 114:
- The first who passed him was a man about thirty, with a gait at once jaunty and clumsy, and who was so outrageously bedizened with eye-glass, watch-chain, and stock buckle, gay satin waistcoat, and new white continuations meant to apologize for a seedy coat, as to give the idea of a servant out of place. 1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter XXXIX, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, pages 200–201:
- Dolores flitted around the car, screaming like a banshee, her face bedizened with fury. 1969, Maya Angelou, chapter 31, in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, New York, N.Y.: Random House, →LCCN, page 240:
- Suppose you get in cheap made dishes from the pastrycook’s, and hire a couple of green-grocers, or carpet-beaters, to figure as footmen, dismissing honest Molly, who waits on common days, and bedizening your table (ordinarily ornamented with willow-pattern crockery) with twopenny-halfpenny Birmingham plate. 1846 February 28 – 1847 February 27, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, “Dining-out Snobs”, in The Book of Snobs, London: Punch Office, […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 71:
- Self is a great Fop and a great Slattern: Soul has given her very good Cloaths, fine Ornaments, plain and neat, but Self either leaves them, like a Slut, in every Corner of the Houſe; or vvhen ſhe puts them on, ſhe does bedizen them vvith Lace and Embroidery, Fringes and Ruffles, Patches, and Povvder, that you can hardly ſee enough of the Garment to diſtinguiſh the excellent Stuff vvhich it is made of: […] 1723 August 9 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Rev. Dr. ***** [pseudonym], “A Letter of Advice to a Young Lady, who had Married above Herself, Grew Vain, and Despis’d Her Husband”, in Alexander Pope, Mr Pope’s Literary Correspondence, volume II, London: […] E[dmund] Curll, […], published 1735, →OCLC, pages 69–70:
- [T]he whole [group] had been bedizzened out, into a burlesque imitation of an antique masque. 1820 January 1, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “Christmas Day”, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., number V, New York, N.Y.: […] C[ornelius] S. Van Winkle, […], →OCLC, page 440:
- Thus the Violet that gayly bedizens the Mead / A fragrance more ſvveet does ſupply, / Tho' oft' rudely bruſh'd by the Traveller's tread, / Than if rear'd in the garden hard bye. 1792, J[ames Cartwright] Cross, “The Orphan Boy, a Simple Pathetic Tale”, in Parnassian Trifles. Being a Collection of Elegiac, Pastoral, Nautic, and Lyric Poetry, London: […] [F]or the author, at the Minerva Press, and sold by William Lane, […], →OCLC, page 53:
- You have bedizened me in green, a colour he detests. Lo you! let me have a blue robe, and—search for the ruby carcanet, which was part of the King of Cyprus's ransom—it is either in the steel-casket, or somewhere else. 1825 June 22, [Walter Scott], chapter III, in Tales of the Crusaders. […], volume IV (The Talisman), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 48:
- Twenty-four hours later we were both in the vast halls of the Winter Palace in full uniform, as bedizened with gold as a nouveau riche’s drawing-room. 1921, Lord Frederic Hamilton [i.e., Frederick Spencer Hamilton], chapter IX, in Here, There and Everywhere, London: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC, page 231:
- [A] Frenchman, viewing the undraped statues which bedizen his native galleries of art, either enjoys them in a purely æsthetic fashion—which is seldom possible save when he is in liquor—or confesses frankly that he doesn't like them at all; whereas the visiting Americano is so powerfully shocked and fascinated by them that one finds him, the same evening, in places where no respectable man ought to go. All art, to this fellow, must have a certain bawdiness, or he cannot abide it. 1918, H[enry] L[ouis] Mencken, “The Tone Art”, in Damn! A Book of Calumny, New York, N.Y.: Philip Goodman, →OCLC, page 106:
- She wore only the subtlest touch of make up and round her delicate throat only a single string of pearls. Among the hundred bedizened women she was a rarity. [1943], Marjorie Barnard, “Arrow of Mistletoe”, in The Persimmon Tree and Other Stories, Sydney, N.S.W.: The Clarendon Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 12:
(Northern-England, literary, transitive) To make (someone or something) dirty; to bedaub, to besmear, to dirty.
- Slinger brast aght o'th' door like a roarin lion,—but he wor sooin collard, an' he wor soa bedisend with soft cake an' puttaty pillins at his own mother could'nt ha owned him. 1876, John Hartley, “Ther’s a Mule i’ th’ Garden. A Christmas Story.”, in Yorksher Puddin’. A Collection of the Most Popular Dialect Stories, Wakefield, West Yorkshire: William Nicholson and Sons; London: Simpkin, Marshall and Co.; […], →OCLC, page 51:

Forms

Spelling	Features	Labels	Source
bedizzen		alternative	lexicographic
bedizens	Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres		lexicographic
bedisen		alternative	lexicographic
bedizening	Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part		lexicographic
bedizened	Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part		lexicographic
bedizened	Tense=Past		lexicographic

Translations (9)

fi koristaa (to dress or ornament (someone or something), especially in a gaudy, showy, or tasteless manner) · bg кича (to dress or ornament (someone or something), especially in a gaudy, showy, or tasteless manner) · fi koristella (to dress or ornament (someone or something), especially in a gaudy, showy, or tasteless manner) · io vestizachar (to dress or ornament (someone or something), especially in a gaudy, showy, or tasteless manner) · io dekorachar (to dress or ornament (someone or something), especially in a gaudy, showy, or tasteless manner) · io ornachar (to dress or ornament (someone or something), especially in a gaudy, showy, or tasteless manner) · it bardare (to dress or ornament (someone or something), especially in a gaudy, showy, or tasteless manner) · bg труфя (to dress or ornament (someone or something), especially in a gaudy, showy, or tasteless manner) · it agghindare (to dress or ornament (someone or something), especially in a gaudy, showy, or tasteless manner)

bedizen en · VERB

Pronunciation

Etymology

Meanings

Forms

Coordinates

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Synonyms

Translations (9)