begrime
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /bɪˈɡɹaɪm/
ipa: /bəˈɡɹaɪm/
rhymes: -aɪm
Forms: form: begrimes
form: begriming
form: begrimed
form: begrimed
Etymology: From be- (prefix meaning ‘about; abundantly; all around; all over’) + grime (“to cake with dirt”).
Senses: examples: text: [U]pon a vaine and fooliſh ſuperſtition, enjoining men to begrime and beray themſelves with durt, to lie and vvallovv in the mire, to obſerve Sabbaths and ceaſe from vvorke, to lie proſtrate and groveling upon the earth with the face dovvnevvard, to ſit upon the ground in open place, and to make many ſtrange and extravagant adorations.
ref: 1603, Plutarch, “Of Superstition”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Philosophie, Commonlie Called, The Morals […], London: […] Arnold Hatfield, →OCLC, page 261:
text: My name that vvas as freſh / As Dians Viſage, is novv begrim'd and blacke / As mine ovvne face.
ref: c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii], page 326, column 1:
text: The smoke of the pine-wood fires which at night were kept continually burning around them. This had most effectually begrimed their features, and their dresses had not scrupled to partake of the same colouring.
ref: 1835, William Gilmore Simms, chapter VII, in The Partisan: A Tale of the Revolution. […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 78:
text: [H]e should forthwith reform his manners, purify himself, and discontinue the vile, filthy habit of snuff-taking—a habit which, to use her own words, begrimeth the face, spoileth the form of the nose—Heaven bless the mark!—destroyeth the voice, and eventually undermineth the constitution.
ref: 1837, “an old forest ranger”, “The Great Western Jungle”, in Theodore Hook, editor, The New Monthly Magazine and Humorist, volume LI, part 3, number CCIII, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 338:
text: collowest] i.e. begrimest, blackenest: […] Collow is smut from burnt coals.
ref: [1840, Alexander Dyce, “The Family of Love”, in Thomas Middleton, The Works of Thomas Middleton, […], volume II, London: Edward Lumley, →OCLC, act III, scene iii, page 152, footnote z:
synonyms: word: assoil
word: beclart
word: bedaub
word: bedirty
word: bedizen
word: befile
word: befilth
word: befoul
word: begrime
word: beray
word: besmear
word: besmirch
word: besully
word: bewray
word: blacken
word: blot
word: blur
word: clat
word: contaminate
word: darken
word: defile
word: denigrate
word: dirty
word: drag through the mud
word: dull
word: elt
word: foil
word: foul
word: gunk
word: gunk up
word: inquinate
word: pollute
word: scunge
word: sling mud
word: slotter
word: slur
word: smirch
word: smudge
word: smutch
word: soil
word: soss
word: sowl
word: spoil
word: spot
word: stain
word: sullow
word: sully
word: taint
word: tarnish
word: uggle
antonyms: word: dirty
glosses: To ingrain grime or dirt which is difficult to remove into (something); also (more generally), to make (something) dirty; to soil.
Derived terms: word: begrimed
word: begrimer
word: begriming
Related terms: grime
grimy