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By way of preparation, or preliminary; previously; aforetime. They may be taught beforehand the skill of speaking. Hooker.

Formerly; aforetime. [They] dwelt in their tents, as beforetime. 2 Kings xiii. 5.

mand for something which elsewhere brings a price; as, grapes are so plentiful there that they go a-begging.

To procreate, as a father or sire; to generate; -- commonly said of the father. Yet they a beauteous offspring shall beget. Milton.

One of an association of religious laymen living in imitation of the Beguines. They arose in the thirteenth century, were afterward subjected to much persecution, and were suppressed by Innocent X. in

A strong pin in the side of a vessel, or by the mast, round which ropes are wound when they are fastened or belayed.

n old woman in general; especially, an ugly old woman; a hag. Around the beldam all erect they hang. Akenside.

relations; household. [Colloq.] Few persons of her ladyship's belongings stopped, before they did her bidding, to ask her reasons. Thackeray.

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.

a belt; to encompass; to surround. A coarse black robe belted round the waist. C. Reade. They belt him round with hearts undaunted. Wordsworth.

s of a ship, the thickest and strongest planks in her sides, more generally called wales. They have the beams, knees, and foothooks bolted to them. Also, the frames or ribs that form the ship's body from the keel to the top of the sides; as, the midship bend.

trust estate. The rich men will be offering sacrifice to their Deity whose beneficiaries they are. Jer. Taylor.

To show beforehand; to foretell; to indicate. [They] bespoke dangers . . . in order to scare the allies. Swift.

pose of to the greatest advantage. "Let there be freedom to carry their commodities where they can make the best of them." Bacon. (b) To reduce to the least possible inconvenience; as, to make the best of ill fortune or a bad bargain.

To put in a certain situation or condition; to circumstance; to place. [Only in p. p.] They shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: . . . and curse their king and their God. Is. viii. 21. Many far worse bestead than ourselves. Barrow.

That which is given or bestowed. They almost refuse to give due praise and credit to God's own bestowments. I. Taylor.

deflected by a magnetic or electric field, emitted by radioactive substances, as radium. They consist of negatively charged particles or electrons, apparently the same in kind as those of the cathode rays, but having much higher velocities (about 35,000 to 180,000 miles per second).

To have recourse to; to apply; to resort; to go; -- with a reflexive pronoun. They betook themselves to treaty and submission. Burke. The rest, in imitation, to like arms Betook them. Milton. Whither shall I betake me, where subsist Milton.

Any angle other than a right angle; the angle which one surface makes with another when they are not at right angles; the slant or inclination of such surface; as, to give a bevel to the edge of a table or a stone slab; the bevel of a piece of timber.

cription of books and manuscripts, with notices of the different editions, the times when they were printed, etc.