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That which is laid, staked, or pledged, as between two parties, upon the event of a contest or any contingent issue; the act of giving such a pledge; a wager. "Having made his bets." Goldsmith.

The second letter of the Greek alphabet, B, b. See B, and cf. etymology of Alphabet. Beta (B, b) is used variously for classifying, as:

Penetrating rays readily 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).…

Excessive or 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.

A nitrogenous base, C5H11NO2, produced artificially, and also occurring naturally in beetroot molasses and its residues, from which it is extracted as a white crystalline substance; -- called also lycine and oxyneurine. It has a sweetish taste.

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.

Delivered; committed in trust. [Obs.]

To better; to mend. See Beete. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Something especially hated or dreaded; a bugbear.

An East India muslin, formerly used for cravats, veils, etc. [Obs.]

To allow; to permit; to suffer. [Obs.] So loving to my mother, That he might not beteem the winds of heaven Visit her face too roughly. Shak.

A species of pepper (Piper betle), the leaves of which are chewed, with the areca or betel nut and a little shell lime, by the inhabitants of the East Indies. I is a woody climber with ovate manynerved leaves.

The nutlike seed of the areca palm, chewed in the East with betel leaves (whence its name) and shell lime.

A bright star of the first magnitude, near one shoulder of Orion. [Written also Betelgeux and Betelgeuse.]

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

A place of worship; a hallowed spot. S. F. Adams.

lowed 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.

A hospital for lunatics; -- corrupted into bedlam.

An inhabitant of Bethlehem in Judea.

imp. & p. p. of Bethink.