Belast
adj ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 burdened, charged, bound. obsolete
"This Indenture, made bitwene Sir James of Ormond knyght, son and heir to the Erl of Ormond, on the one part, and James Skidmore Esquier of the countee of Hereford on the other part, witnesseth that the seid James Skidmore is belast and wᵗholden toward the seid Sir James for an hole yeer to do him service of Werre in the perties of France and of Normandie, in all places where as it shall like the seid Sir James to ordeyn and comaunde him, ..."
Example
More examples"This Indenture, made bitwene Sir James of Ormond knyght, son and heir to the Erl of Ormond, on the one part, and James Skidmore Esquier of the countee of Hereford on the other part, witnesseth that the seid James Skidmore is belast and wᵗholden toward the seid Sir James for an hole yeer to do him service of Werre in the perties of France and of Normandie, in all places where as it shall like the seid Sir James to ordeyn and comaunde him, ..."
Etymology
From Middle English belast, belest, bilast (“charged with an obligation, bound”), past participle of Middle English belasten, bilasten, from Old English behlæstan (“to load a ship”), equivalent to be- + last. Cognate with Dutch belasten (“to charge, load, burden, tax”), German belasten (“to burden, charge, load, strain”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.