befilth

English

Etymology

From be- (“on, about, all over”) +‎ filth.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɪlθ

Verb

befilth (third-person singular simple present befilths, present participle befilthing, simple past and past participle befilthed)

1. (transitive, rare) To cover with filth; make filthy; begrime.
   • 1890, Albert Kimsey Owen, Integral Co-operation at Work ... - Page 105:

     How people, with any pretence to decency or cleanliness, can, for a day, sit voiceless and patient and see these brutes destroy and befilth everything, public and private, is difficult to believe.

   • 1922, Jesse Franklin Bradley, Joseph Quincy Adams, The Jonson Allusion-book:

     Shall he be crest-fall'n, if some looser brain, In flux of wit uncivilly befilth His slight composures? Shall his bosom faint, If drunken Censure belch out sour breath From Hatred's surfeit on his labour's front? Nay, say some half a dozen rancorous [...]