beset
Part of speech: verb
Morphological type: derivation
Topics: government
military
nautical
politics
transport
war
Etymology: From Middle English besetten, bisetten (“to besiege, blockade; to fill, occupy; to harass, beset; to allot, bestow; to arrange, manage; to place, set; to provide for; to treat in a certain way”), from Old English besettan, bisettan (“to surround, beset; to set near; etc.”), from Proto-West Germanic *bisattjan, from Proto-Germanic *bisatjaną (“to fill, occupy”), from *bi- (prefix meaning ‘at; by’) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁epi (“at; near; on”)) + *satjaną (“to place down, set”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sed- (“to sit”)). By surface analysis, be- (prefix meaning ‘around; by, close to, near, next to’) + set.
cognates
* Danish besætte (“to occupy; obsess”)
* Dutch bezetten (“to sit in; occupy; fill”)
* German besetzen (“to seize; occupy; garrison”)
* German Low German besetten (“to occupy”)
* Saterland Frisian besätte (“to occupy”)
* Swedish besätta (“to fill; occupy; beset”)
* West Frisian besette (“to occupy”)
Inflected forms:
form: besets
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: besetting
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: beset
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: beset
pos: verb
tags: past
form: no-table-tags
pos: verb
tags: table-tags
form: glossary
pos: verb
tags: inflection-template
form: beset
pos: verb
tags: infinitive
form: beset
pos: verb
tags: first-person
present
singular
form: beset
pos: verb
tags: first-person
past
singular
form: beset
pos: verb
tags: present
second-person
singular
form: besettest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
second-person
singular
form: beset
pos: verb
tags: past
second-person
singular
form: besetst
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: besets
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: besetteth
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
singular
third-person
form: beset
pos: verb
tags: past
singular
third-person
form: beset
pos: verb
tags: plural
present
form: beset
pos: verb
tags: past
plural
form: beset
pos: verb
tags: present
subjunctive
form: beset
pos: verb
tags: past
subjunctive
form: beset
pos: verb
tags: imperative
present
form: -
pos: verb
tags: imperative
past
form: besetting
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: beset
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
Senses:
gloss: Senses relating to surrounding.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: He that hath read Seneca or Boethius, is well provided against any ordinary misfortune; and to have by heart the story of Argalus and Parthenia; the dolorous madrigals of old Plangus in the Arcadia; or the history of Pyramus and Thisbe, is a never failing remedy for the mubble-fubbles: For to be acquainted with sadness, besets familiarity, and familiars never kill one another, unless the devil is in them.
“Nay, for matter o’ that, he never doth any mischief,” said the woman; “but to be sure it is necessary he should keep some arms for his own safety; for his house hath been beset more than once; and it is not many nights ago that we thought we heard thieves about it […]
It may be but an idle whim, but it has always seemed to me, that the extraordinary vacillations of movement displayed by some whales when beset by three or four boats; the timidity and liability to queer frights, so common to such whales; I think that all this indirectly proceeds from the helpless perplexity of volition, in which their divided and diametrically opposite powers of vision must involve them.
gloss: Senses relating to surrounding.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: Senses relating to surrounding.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: Senses relating to surrounding.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
transitive
examples: For thou, deere Lord, thou me besett'st; / Thy rodd and thy staff be / To comfort me: […]
Thou me beſetſt behind, before, / and laidſt thine hand on me, / Such knovvledge is for me too ſtrange, / it to attain's^([sic – meaning attainest]) too hie [high].
It was a handsome old stucco hall, very elegantly appointed, for Winter was a bachelor and prided himself on his style; but the place was beset by collieries.
Vegetatively it is the nearest to H. translucens with its oblong-lanceolate leaves, with the margins and keel beset with pellucid teeth, but it differs and is characterised by the greyish-black quadrantly positioned globose flowers; […]
gloss: Senses relating to surrounding.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
transitive
gloss: Senses relating to surrounding.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
transitive
examples: Fred Brentnall, in his squeaky lorikeet voice reads to the House Lawson's last two stanzas, just to highlight the danger besetting the colony of Queensland, indeed, the whole country:[…]
Some of Grimsby's other (extraordinarily up-to-date) targets include Donald Trump and Daniel Radcliffe, whose fates here are too breath-catchingly cruel to spoil, and also the admirably game Strong, whose character is beset by a constant stream of humiliations that hit with the force of a jet of … well, you'll see.
Track and platforms have been upgraded, but refurbished trains from Vivarail have been beset by software problems.
In commercial after commercial, humans are oblivious, enfeebled, barely functioning idiots beset by more tasks, stimuli and demands on their time than anyone could reasonably handle.
gloss: Senses relating to surrounding.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
often
transitive
gloss: Senses relating to surrounding.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
gloss: Senses relating to placing or setting.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
gloss: Senses relating to placing or setting.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
gloss: Senses relating to placing or setting.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
gloss: Senses relating to placing or setting.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
gloss: Senses relating to being appropriate.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
gloss: Senses relating to being appropriate.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
obsolete
Antonyms: unbeset
Derived words: besetment
besetter
besetting
besetting sin
umbeset
unbeset
Translations:
lang: Arabic
word: اِكْتَنَفَ
roman: iktanafa
lang: Bulgarian
word: обсаждам
roman: obsaždam
lang: Bulgarian
word: обкръжавам
roman: obkrǎžavam
lang: Czech
word: obklopit
lang: Czech
word: obklopovat
lang: Czech
word: obklíčit
lang: Estonian
word: ümber piirama
lang: Finnish
word: saartaa
lang: Finnish
word: piirittää
lang: Italian
word: circondare
lang: Latin
word: circumsedeo
lang: Macedonian
word: о́пколи
roman: ópkoli
lang: Macedonian
word: о́пкружи
roman: ópkruži
lang: Māori
word: karapoti
lang: Māori
word: popoke
lang: Māori
word: popoti
lang: Māori
word: pūrau
lang: Portuguese
word: cercar
lang: Romanian
word: împresura
lang: Russian
word: осажда́ть
roman: osaždátʹ
lang: Russian
word: осади́ть
roman: osadítʹ
lang: Russian
word: тесни́ть
roman: tesnítʹ
lang: Russian
word: потесни́ть pf or стесни́ть
roman: potesnítʹ
lang: Spanish
word: cercar
lang: Spanish
word: circuir
lang: Spanish
word: circundar
lang: Spanish
word: sitiar
lang: Ukrainian
word: ото́чувати
roman: otóčuvaty
lang: Ukrainian
word: оточи́ти
roman: otočýty