bedew

English

Etymology

From Middle English bidewen, bideawen; equivalent to be- +‎ dew. Cognate with Dutch bedauwen (“to bedew”), German betauen (“to bedew”).

Pronunciation

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Verb

bedew (third-person singular simple present bedews, present participle bedewing, simple past and past participle bedewed)

1. (transitive) To make wet with or as if with dew.
   • a. 1701 (date written), John Dryden, “The Epithalamium of Helen and Menelaus. From the 18th Idyllium of Theocritus.”, in The Miscellaneous Works of John Dryden, […], volume II, London: […] J[acob] and R[ichard] Tonson, […], published 1760, →OCLC, page 412:

     Balm, from a ſilver-box diſtill'd around, / Shall all bedew the roots, and ſcent the ſacred ground.

   • 1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter VIII, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume II, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC, pages 132–133:

     Soft tears again bedewed my cheeks, and I even raised my humid eyes with thankfulness towards the blessed sun which bestowed such joy upon me.

   • 1819 (date written), Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Masque of Anarchy. A Poem. […], London: Edward Moxon […], published 1832, →OCLC, stanzas XXXV–XXXVI, pages 18–19:

     As if their own indignant earth, / Which gave the sons of England birth, / Had felt their blood upon her brow, / And shuddering with a mother's throe, / Had turned every drop of blood, / By which her face had been bedewed / To an accent unwithstood, / As if her heart had cried aloud: […]

   • 1836, Eliza Cook, The Old Armchair:

     I LOVE it, I love it ; and who shall dare
     To chide me for loving that old Arm-chair ?
     I've treasured it long as a sainted prize ;
     I've bedewed it with tears, and embalmed it with sighs.

   • 1885, W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert; Arthur Sullivan, composer, […] The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu, London: Chappel & Co., […], →OCLC:

     While sympathetic tears / My cheeks bedew

Derived terms

• bedewed
• bedewer

Anagrams

• bewed, dweeb

Northern Kurdish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɛˈdɛw/

Adjective

bedew

1. beautiful

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɛ.dɛf/
• Rhymes: -ɛdɛf
• Syllabification: be‧dew

Noun

bedew m animal

1. (obsolete) alternative form of badawja

Declension

Declension of bedew

	singular	plural
nominative	bedew	bedewy
genitive	bedewa	bedewów
dative	bedewowi	bedewom
accusative	bedewa	bedewy
instrumental	bedewem	bedewami
locative	bedewie	bedewach
vocative	bedewie	bedewy

Further reading

• Samuel Bogumił Linde (1807–1814), “bedew”, in Słownik języka polskiego
• Aleksander Zdanowicz (1861), “bedew”, in Słownik języka polskiego, Wilno 1861
• J. Karłowicz, A. Kryński, W. Niedźwiedzki, editors (1900), “badawja, bedew”, in Słownik języka polskiego (in Polish), volume 1, Warsaw, page 81