Search the Dictionary

To promise; to vow. Behight by vow unto the chaste Minerve. Surrey.

he front or nearest part; on the back side of; at the back of; on the other side of; as, behind a door; behind a hill. A tall Brabanter, behind whom I stood. Bp. Hall.

ot equally forward with some other person or thing; dilatory; backward; late; tardy; as, behindhand in studies or in work. In this also [dress] the country are very much behindhand. Addison.

On this side of. [Obs.] Two miles behither Clifden. Evelyn.

To have in sight; to see clearly; to look at; to regard with the eyes. When he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. Num. xxi. 9. Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. John. i. 29.

Obliged; bound in gratitude; indebted. But being so beholden to the Prince. Tennyson.

One who beholds; a spectator.

Obliged; beholden. [Obs.] I was much bound and beholding to the right reverend father. Robynson (More's Utopia). So much hath Oxford been beholding to her nephews, or sister's children. Fuller.

, The state of being obliged or beholden. [Obs.] Sir P. Sidney.

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

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

ith 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]

, and derivatives. See Behoove, & c.

Useful, or usefully. [Obs.]

To howl at. [Obs.] The wolf behowls the moon. Shak.

A hospital for lunatics; -- corrupted into bedlam.

An inhabitant of Bethlehem in Judea.

A cetacean allied to the grampus; -- called also bottle-nosed whale.

in a contest; an abettor; a backer. [Colloq.] Lord Palmerston considered himself the bottleholder of oppressed states. The London Times.