beseek

English

Etymology

From Middle English beseken, equivalent to be- +‎ seek. Cognate with Scots beseik (“to beseek”). More at beseech.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bəˈsiːk/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːk

Verb

beseek (third-person singular simple present beseeks, present participle beseeking, simple past and past participle besought)

1. (transitive, dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To beseech; entreat.
   • 1885, Robert Louis Stevenson, Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson, “Story of the Destroying Angel”, in More New Arabian Nights: The Dynamiter, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 45:

     I flung myself before him on my knees, and with floods of tears besought him to release me from this engagement, assuring him that my cowardice was abject, and that in every point of intellect and character I was his hopeless and derisible inferior.

Anagrams

• Beekes