beath
English edit
Etymology edit
From Middle English bethen, from Old English beþian, beþigean, beþþan, bæþþan (“to heat, warm, foment, wash, cherish; bathe”), from Proto-West Germanic *baþþjan, *baþigōn, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₁- (“to warm”). Cognate with Middle Dutch betten, bessen (“to moisten with hot water, humidify”).
Pronunciation edit
Verb edit
beath (third-person singular simple present beaths, present participle beathing, simple past and past participle beathed)
- (transitive, dialectal) To bathe (with warm liquid); foment.
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- And in his hand a tall young oake he bore,
Whose knottie snags were sharpned all afore,
And beath'd in fire for steel to be in sted
- (transitive) To dry or heat (unseasoned) wood for the purpose of straightening it.