(3rd sing.) north. dial. Also buse, bos, bose, boes, (boost). Pa. t. bud(e, bute, bood, boot, boud, bode. Pres. Subj. bove. [Contracted f. behoves, behoved, chiefly used impersonally. Transition forms in pa. t. were byhod, behode: see BEHOVE. The pa. t. bud, bid, is still used in Sc. of moral or logical necessity: it is no longer impersonal.]
† 1. impersonally. (It) behoves, is obligatory upon, is necessary for. Obs.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 9870. Of a womman bos him be born. Ibid., 10639. Þan bus þis may be clene and bright. Ibid., Resurrection, 68. p. 986. Þat day … bode man again be boght.
1352. Minot, Poems (1887), ix. 28. At the Nevil-cros, nedes bud tham knele.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Reeve’s T., 107 (Ellesm.). Him boes [v.r. bihoues, byhoueþ, falles, he muste] serue hym selne that has na swayn.
c. 1400. Ywaine & Gaw., 3022. With both at ones bihoves him fight, So bus the do.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 5115. I bid þerfore barly, þat he bove herchyn.
c. 1440. York Myst., VIII. 148. Nowe bus me wende.
c. 1500. Poem on Death, in Halliwell, Nugæ P., 40. To rekkenynge buse us ryse.
2. mod.Sc. Pa. tense also as pres., with subject: Must, ought.
a. 1774. Ferguson, Election. For tricks ye buit be tryin’.
1786. Burns, Dream, vi. I fear, that wi’ the geese, I shortly boost to pasture I’ the craft some day.
1790. Shirref, Poems, 43 (Jam.). A’ he said boot just be to the point.
1818. Sus. Ferrier, Marriage, II. 123. ‘An’ ye bute to hae an English wife tu.’
1866. Cornh. Mag., XIII. 359. They bude to meet again.
1868. G. Macdonald, R. Falconer, I. 67. ‘I bude to speik whan I was spoken till.’
