Emily Dickinson Lexicon — BECK'ON

BE-COME', v.i. [becum'; pret. became, pp. become. Sax. becuman, to fall out or happen; D. bekoomen; G. bekommen, to get or obtain; Sw. bekomma; Dan. bekommer, to obtain; be and come. The Sax. be is the Eng. by. These significations differ from the sense in English. But the sense is, to come to, to arrive, to reach, to fall or pass to. [See Come.]

Hence the sense of suiting, agreeing with. In Sax. cuman, Goth. kwiman, is to come, and Sax. cweman, is to please, that is, to suit or be agreeable.]
To pass from one state to another; to enter into some state or condition, by a change from another state or condition, or by assuming or receiving new properties or qualities, additional matter, or a new character; as, a cion becomes a tree. The Lord God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. Gen. ii. To the Jews, I became as a Jew. 1 Cor. ix.
To become of, usually with what preceding; to be the fate of; to be the end of; to be the final or subsequent condition; as, what will become of our commerce? what will become of us? In the present tense, it applies to place as well as condition. What has become of my friend; that is, where is he? as well as, what is his condition; Where is he become? used by Shakspeare and Spenser, is obsolete; but this is the sense in Saxon, where has he fallen?

BE-COME', v.t.

In general, to suit or be suitable; to be congruous; to befit; to accord with, in character or circumstances; to be worthy of, decent or proper. It is used in the same sense applied to persons or things. If I become not a cart as well as another man. Shak. This use of the word however is less frequent, the verb usually expressing the suitableness of things, to persons or to other things; as, a robe becomes a prince. It becomes me so to speak of an excellent poet. Dryden.

BE-COM'ING, a.

Ornament. [Obs.] Shak.

BE-COM'ING, ppr.

but used rarely or never except as an adjective. Fit; suitable; congruous; proper; graceful; belonging to the character, or adapted to circumstances; as, he speaks with becoming boldness; a dress is very becoming. Some writers formerly used of, after this word. Such discourses as are becoming of them. Dryden. But this use is inelegant or improper.

BE-COM'ING-LY, adv.

After a becoming or proper manner.

BE-COM'ING-NESS, n.

Fitness; congruity; propriety; decency; gracefulness arising from fitness. Grew.

BE-CRIP'PLE, v.t. [See Cripple.]

To make lame; to cripple. [Little used.]

BE-CURL', v.t.

To curl. [Not used.]

BED, n. [Sax. bed; D. bed; G. bett or beet; Goth. badi. The sense is a lay or spread, from laying or setting.]

A place or an article of furniture to sleep and take rest on; in modern times, and among civilized men, a sack or tick filled with feathers or wool; but a bed may be made of straw or any other materials. The word bed includes often the bedstead.
Lodging; a convenient place for sleep.
Marriage; matrimonial connection. George, the eldest son of his second bed. Clarendon.
A plat or level piece of ground in a garden, usually a little raised above the adjoining ground. Bacon.
The channel of a river, or that part in which the water usually flows. Milton.
Any hollow place, especially in the arts; a hollow place in which any thing rests; as, the bed of a mortar.
A layer; a stratum; an extended mass of any thing, whether upon the earth or within it; as, a bed of sulphur; a bed of sand or clay.
Pain, torment. Rev. ii The grave. Is. lvii. The lawful use of wedlock. Heb. xiii. The bed of the carriage of a gun, is a thick plank which lies under the piece, being, as it were the body of the carriage. The bed of a mortar is a solid piece of oak, hollow in the middle, to receive the breech and half the trunnions. In masonry, bed is a range of stones, and the joint of the bed is the mortar between the two stones placed over each other. Encyc. Bed of justice, in France, was a throne on which the king was seated when he went to parliament. Hence the phrase, to hold a bed of justice. To make a bed, is to put it in order after it has been used. To bring to bed, to deliver of a child, is rarely used. But in the passive form, to be brought to bed, that is, to be delivered of a child, is common. It is often followed by of; as, to be brought to bed of a son. To put to bed, in midwifery, is to deliver of a child. Dining bed, or discubitory bed, among the ancients, a bed on which persons lay at meals. It was four or five feet high, and would hold three or four persons. Three of these beds were ranged by a square table, one side of the table being left open, and accessible to the waiters. Hence the Latin name for the table and the room, triclinium, or three beds. Encyc. From board and bed. In law, a separation of man and wife, without dissolving the bands of matrimony, is called a separation from board and bed, a mensa et toro. In this case the wife has a suitable maintenance allotted to her out of the husband's estate, called alimony. Blackstone.

BED, v.i.

To cohabit; to use the same bed. If he be married and bed with his wife. Wiseman.

BED, v.t.

To place in a bed. Bacon.
To go to bed with. [Unusual.] Shak.
To make partaker of the bed. Bacon.
To plant and inclose or cover; to set or lay and inclose; as, to bed the roots of a plant in soft mold.
To lay in any hollow place, surrounded or inclosed; as, to bed a stone.
To lay in a place of rest or security, covered, surrounded or inclosed; as, a fish bedded in sand, or under a bank.
To lay in a stratum; to stratify; to lay in order, or flat; as, bedded clay, bedded hairs. Shak.

BE-DAB'BLE, v.t. [be and dabble.]

To wet; to sprinkle. Bedabbled with the dew. Shak.

BE-DAB'BLED, pp.

Wet; sprinkled.

BE-DAB'BLING, ppr.

Wetting; sprinkling.

BE-DAFF', v.t.

To make a fool of. [Not in use.] Chaucer.

BED'A-GAT, n.

The name of the sacred books of the Boodhists in Burmah. Malcom.

BE-DAG'GLE, v.t. [be and daggle.]

To soil, as clothes, by drawing the ends in the mud, or spattering them with dirty water.

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