Dictionary

bethatch en · VERB

Etymology

From Middle English bithecchen, from Old English beþeċċan (“to cover; protect; cover over; conceal”), from Proto-West Germanic *biþakkjan, equivalent to be- + thatch. Cognate with Dutch bedekken (“to cover”), German bedecken (“to cover”). More at its doublet bedeck. Alteration in vowel after Middle English perhaps due to thatch.

Meanings

1. (transitive, uncommon) To cover with thatch; to thatch.
   • Part it behind, like terrier's back, Bethatch the front like wheaten stack, […] 1865, Richard Francis Burton (sir.), Stone talk:
2. (broadly, humorous, nonce-word, transitive, uncommon) To cover with hair.
   • Both are coolly intense, well bethatched, bell-bottomed and bespectacled. 1969, Henry Robinson Luce, Gordon Parks, Life:
   • Baldies did not like their condition: "Witness their frantic efforts to keep among the ranks of the bethatched. […]" 1996, Kerry Segrave, Baldness: a social history:

Forms