Bereft

//bəˈɹɛft// adj, verb

adj, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    simple past and past participle of bereave form-of, participle, past

    "bereft of strength"

Adjective
  1. 1
    Pained by the loss of someone. not-comparable

    "I was utterly bereft in the months following my wife's death."

  2. 2
    Deprived of, stripped of, robbed of. not-comparable

    "And there I strove, and there I clove through the drift of icy streams; / And there I fought, and there I sought for the pay-streak of my dreams. // So twenty years, with their hopes and fears and smiles and tears and such, / Went by and left me long bereft of hope of the Midas touch; […]"

  3. 3
    Lacking, devoid of. not-comparable
Adjective
  1. 1
    sorrowful through loss or deprivation wordnet
  2. 2
    unhappy in love; suffering from unrequited love wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
bereavedbankrupt inbare ofbarrenbeggaredbeggarly

Example

More examples

"Men who were bereft of reason conducted the war."

Etymology

From Middle English bireft, v. Middle English bireven. Synchronically a form of bereaved; compare leave and left.

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