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Advantage; favor; stead; benefit; interest; profit; support; defense; vindication. In behalf of his mistress's beauty. Sir P. Sidney. Against whom he had contracted some prejudice in behalf of his nation. Clarendon. In behalf of, in the interest of. -- On behalf of, on account of; on the part of.

Advantage; profit; benefit; interest; use. No mean recompense it brings To your behoof. Milton.

Supplying need; profitable; advantageous. [Obs.] Udall.

To be necessary for; to be fit for; to be meet for, with respect to necessity, duty, or convenience; -- mostly used impersonally. And thus it behooved Christ to suffer. Luke xxiv. 46. [Also written behove.]

Advantageous; useful; profitable. [Archaic] -- Be*hoove"ful*ly, adv. -- Be*hoove"ful*ness, n. [Archaic]

Unworthy of; unbefitting; beneath. They beheld, with a just loathing and disdain, . . . how below all history the persons and their actions were. Milton. Who thinks no fact below his regard. Hallam.

The act of conferring a benefit. Johnson.

One who confers a benefit or benefits. Bacon.

A woman who confers a benefit. His benefactress blushes at the deed. Cowper.

A favor or benefit. [Obs.] Baxter.

Conferring benefits; useful; profito. The war which would have been most beneficial to us. Swift.

In a beneficial or advantageous manner; profitably; helpfully.

The quality of being beneficial; profitableness.

One who receives anything as a gift; one who receives a benefit or advantage; esp. one who receives help or income from an educational fund or a trust estate. The rich men will be offering sacrifice to their Deity whose beneficiaries they are. Jer. Taylor.

rally: To appear or seem (well, ill, best, etc.) for (one) to do or to have. Hence: To be fit, suitable, or proper for, or worthy of; to become; to befit. A duty well beseeming the preachers. Clarendon. What form of speech or behavior beseemeth us, in our prayers to God Hocker.

Fit; suitable; becoming. [Archaic] In beseemly order sitten there. Shenstone.

To suit; to fit; to become. [Obs.]

To assort or be congruous with; to fit, or become. [Obs.] Such men as may besort your age. Shak.

A bespeaking. Among actors, a benefit (when a particular play is bespoken.) "The night of her bespeak." Dickens.

In the highest degree; beyond all others. "Thou serpent! That name best befits thee." Milton. He prayeth best, who loveth best All things both great and small. Coleridge.