Bemean

//bɪˈmiːn// verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To mean; signify; inform. obsolete, transitive
  2. 2
    To make mean or base, demean.

    "I fished carefully, used wet flies and dry, all that I had in my book, and even bemeaned myself by baiting a plain hook with a grasshopper."

Synonyms

All synonyms
demeandemean

Example

More examples

"I fished carefully, used wet flies and dry, all that I had in my book, and even bemeaned myself by baiting a plain hook with a grasshopper."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English bemenen, equivalent to be- + mean (“to signify”). Compare Middle High German bemeinen (“to mean”).

Etymology 2

From be- + mean (“base, lowly”), from Middle English mene, aphetic variation of Middle English imene (“average, lowly, mean”), from Old English ġemǣne (“mean, common, average”). More at mean.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.