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To master thoroughly.

To drag through, encumber with, or fix in, the mire; to soil by passing through mud or dirt. Bemired and benighted in the dog. Burke.

cable to the ring of an anchor. Totten. To bend the brow, to knit the brow, as in deep thought or in anger; to scowl; to frown. Camden.

A thin stuff, made of silk and hair, originally brought from Bengal.

That phase of the doctrine of utilitarianism taught by Jeremy Bentham; the doctrine that the morality of actions is estimated and determined by their utility; also, the theory that the sensibility to pleasure and the recoil from pain are the only motives which influence human desires and actions, and that these are the…

on or thing taken away. Madam, you have bereft me of all words. Shak. Bereft of him who taught me how to sing. Tickell.

A small fruit that is pulpy or succulent throughout, having seeds loosely imbedded in the pulp, as the currant, grape, blueberry.

One of a class of legendary heroes, who fought frenzied by intoxicating liquors, and naked, regardless of wounds. Longfellow.

t with urgency; to supplicate; to implore. I beseech you, punish me not with your hard thoughts. Shak. But Eve . . . besought his peace. Milton.

the regular course or order of; in a state of deviation from; out of. [You] have done enough To put him quite beside his patience. Shak.

by burning out a portion of the carbon and other impurities that the latter contains, through the agency of a blast of air which is forced through the molten metal; -- so called from Sir Henry Bessemer, an English engineer, the inventor of the process.

Most intimately; most thoroughly or correctly; as, what is expedient is best known to himself.

in 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.

To give or confer; to impart; -- with on or upon. Empire is on us bestowed. Cowper. Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor. 1 Cor. xiii. 3.

extended use of the b sound in speech, due to conversion of other sounds into it, as through inability to distinguish them from b, or because of difficulty in pronouncing them.

So loving to my mother, That he might not beteem the winds of heaven Visit her face too roughly. Shak.

A highly elastic wood, used for fishing rods, etc. The tree is unknown, but it is thought to be East Indian.

generally followed by a reflexive pronoun, often with of or that before the subject of thought. I have bethought me of another fault. Shak. The rest . . . may . . . bethink themselves, and recover. Milton. We bethink a means to break it off. Shak.

More correctly or thoroughly. The better to understand the extent of our knowledge. Locke.

Best. [R.] "The bettermost classes." Brougham.