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Beset
Definitions
- 1 To surround or hem in. transitive
"Vegetatively it is the nearest to H. translucens with its oblong-lanceolate leaves, with the margins and keel beset with pellucid teeth, but it differs and is characterised by the greyish-black quadrantly positioned globose flowers; […]"
- 2 assail or attack on all sides wordnet
- 3 To attack or assail, especially from all sides. figuratively, sometimes, transitive
"He that hath read Seneca or Boethius, is well provided against any ordinary misfortune; and to have by heart the story of Argalus and Parthenia; the dolorous madrigals of old Plangus in the Arcadia; or the history of Pyramus and Thisbe, is a never failing remedy for the mubble-fubbles: For to be acquainted with sadness, besets familiarity, and familiars never kill one another, unless the devil is in them."
- 4 decorate or cover lavishly (as with gems) wordnet
- 5 To decorate something with jewels etc. transitive
"It was a handsome old stucco hall, very elegantly appointed, for Winter was a bachelor and prided himself on his style; but the place was beset by collieries."
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- 6 annoy continually or chronically wordnet
- 7 Of a ship, to get trapped by ice.
Etymology
From Middle English besetten, bisetten, from Old English besettan (“to beset; set beside; set near”), from Proto-West Germanic *bisattjan, from Proto-Germanic *bisatjaną (“to set near; set around”), equivalent to be- + set. Cognate with Saterland Frisian besätte (“to occupy”), West Frisian besette (“to occupy”), Dutch bezetten (“to sit in; occupy; fill”), German Low German besetten (“to occupy”), German besetzen (“to seize; occupy; garrison”), Danish besætte (“to occupy; obsess”), Swedish besätta (“to fill; occupy; beset”).
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