betwattle en · VERB
Etymology
Possibly a back formation from betwattled, late 18th-century Dorset British slang for confused, bewildered.
Meanings
-
(West-Country, archaic, transitive) To surprise, to confound, to befuddle, to put in a distressed state of mind.
She would not let a man betwattle her with kisses... again.
1996, Jo Ann Ferguson, Miss Charity's Case (Zebra Regency Romance), →ISBN:"No, you have tried to betwattle me by making the facts fit your assumption of who killed you and why."
2007, Jocelyn Kelley, Lost in Shadow:
- (West-Country, archaic, intransitive) To be in a distressed state of mind.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| betwattling | Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| betwattles | Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres | lexicographic | |
| betwaddle | alternative | lexicographic | |
| betwattled | Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| betwattled | Tense=Past | lexicographic |