Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BID, v.t. [pret. bid or bade; pp. bid, bidden. Sax. biddan; Goth. bidyan; to ask, request or pray; Sax. beodan, to command; bead, one who persuades or exhorts; Sw. bidia, to ask or entreat; D. bieden, to offer, or bid; gebieden, to command; G. bieten, to offer; gebieten, entbieten, to command; Dan. beder, to pray, or desire; byder, to command, to bid, to offer, to invite; L. peto, to drive at, to attack, to ask, to desire, to beseech, anciently beto; Ir. impidhim, to beseech; Sp. and Port. pedir, to ask or beg; Sans. badi, padi, petir, botti, a commander; Ch. פיט fat, to pray or beseech; Eth. ፈተወ fato, or fatho, to desire. The primary sense is, to press forward, to drive, to urge; hence L. impetus. Applied to the voice, it denotes utterance, a driving of sounds, which is applied to asking, prayer, and command. Class Bd.]

1. To ask; to request; to invite. Go ye into the highways, and as many as ye shalt find, bid to the marriage. – Matth. xxii. This sense is antiquated, but we have the same word from the Latin, in incite, [in and bid.]
2. To command; to order or direct. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come to thee on the water. – Matth. xiv.
3. To offer; to propose; as, to bid a price at an auction.
4. To proclaim; to make known by a public voice. [Obs.] Our bans thrice bid. – Shak.
5. To pronounce or declare; as, to bid a welcome.
6. To denounce, or threaten; as, to bid defiance.
7. To wish or pray. Neither bid him God speed. [A mistake for good speed.] – 2 John 10. To bid beads, is to pray with beads, as the Catholics; to distinguish each bead by a prayer. – Johnson. Also, to charge parishioners to say a number of paternosters. – Encyc. To bid fair, is to open or offer a good prospect; to appear fair.