Bereave

verb

verb ·2 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To deprive by or as if by violence; to rob; to strip. transitive

    "Madam, you have bereft me of all words,"

  2. 2
    deprive through death wordnet
  3. 3
    To take away by destroying, impairing, or spoiling; take away by violence. obsolete, transitive

    "All your interest in those territories / Is utterly bereft you; all is lost."

  4. 4
    To deprive of power; prevent. transitive
  5. 5
    To take away someone or something that is important or close; deprive. transitive

    "Death bereaved him of his wife."

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  1. 6
    To destroy life; cut off. intransitive, rare

Synonyms

All synonyms
abridgeagonizebleedcurtailcut offdeprive

Example

More examples

"I cannot bereave him of this pleasure."

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English bireven, from Old English berēafian (“to bereave, deprive of, take away, seize, rob, despoil”), from Proto-Germanic *biraubōną, and Old English berēofan (“to bereave, deprive, rob of”); both equivalent to be- + reave. Cognate with Dutch beroven (“to rob, deprive, bereave”), German berauben (“to deprive, rob, bereave”), Danish berøve (“to deprive of”), Norwegian berøve (“to deprive”), Swedish beröva (“to rob”), Gothic 𐌱𐌹𐍂𐌰𐌿𐌱𐍉𐌽 (biraubōn).

Related phrases

cut offtake away

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