Bestead
adj, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 To help, assist. transitive
"She indifferently makes profit of all; even errours and dreames, doe profitably beſteade-her, as a loyall matter, to bring-vs vnto ſafetie and contentment."
- 2 To take the place of; replace. transitive
- 3 To profit; benefit; serve; avail. transitive
"With forty sous which remained, he went to a low gambling house, where fortune, or something surer to the skilful practitioner, so well besteaded him that he was able to clothe himself decently preparatory to entering Frascati's, the fashionable hell of Paris—a den of abomination early suppressed on the accession of Louis Philippe to the French throne."
- 1 Placed (in a given situation); beset. archaic, not-comparable
""I was indeed hard bestead, sir," burst in Oliver."
- 2 Disposed mentally; affected. not-comparable, obsolete
"sorrowfully bestead"
- 3 Provided; furnished. not-comparable, obsolete
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"She indifferently makes profit of all; even errours and dreames, doe profitably beſteade-her, as a loyall matter, to bring-vs vnto ſafetie and contentment."
Etymology
From be- + stead (“to support, help”).
From Middle English bisteden; equivalent to be- + stead (“place”).
From Middle English bistad; equivalent to be- + Old Norse staddr (“placed”), later assimilated to Etymology 1, above.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.