Dictionary

behang en · VERB

Etymology

From Middle English *behangen, behongen, bihangien, bihengen, from Old English behōn (“to hang round”), equivalent to be- + hang. Cognate with Dutch behangen (“to decorate”), German behängen (“to hang, drape, decorate”).

Meanings

1. (transitive) To hang round or about, as ornament or embellishment; suspend; drape.
   • Moreover, when they have introduced the bride, they spread a fleece under her; and she, having brought in with her a distaff and a spindle, all behangs her husband's door with woollen yarn? 1874, Plutarch, John Dryden, Arthur Hugh Clough, Plutarch's lives:
   • And with rich clusters (hid among / The leaves) her temples I behung: […] 1890, Robert Herrick, William Carew Hazlitt, Hesperides:
   • Now seven times had frosty-bearded Winter covered both herbs and flowers with snow, and behung the trees with crystal icicles, since the unfortunate St. George beheld the cheerful light of heaven, but lived obscure in a dismal dungeon, […] 1824, Richard Johnson, The renowned history of the seven champions of Christendom:

Forms

Deriveds

behung