v. Pa. t. and pa. pple. beset. Also 1–6 bi-, by-. For forms see SET. [Com. Teut.: OE. bi-, besęttan = OHG. bisezzan (MHG. and mod.G. besetzen), OS. bisettjan (MDu. besetten, Du. bezetten), Goth. (and OTeut.) bisatjan, f. bi-, BE- about + satjan (OE. sęttan) to SET, causal of sitjan to SIT. Beset is thus the causal to BESIT.]
I. To set about, surround. All trans.
1. To set (a thing) about with accessories or appendages of any kind; to surround with things set in their places. Now only in pa. pple.
a. 1000. Beowulf, 2910. Swa hine fyrn-dagum worhte wæpna smið wundrum téode besette swin-licum.
c. 1200. Ormin, 8169. Itt wass eȝȝwhær bisett Wiþþ deorewurþe staness.
1388. Wyclif, Ecclus. xxviii. 28. Bisette thin eeris with thornes.
a. 1529. Skelton, Vox Pop., Wks. 1843, II. 404. His tabell … With platt besett inowe.
1563. Pilkington, Serm., Wks. (1842), 657. Many of the university … beset the walls of the Church and Church-porch on both sides with verses.
1598. Barckley, Felic. Man, III. (1603), 253. I made orchards and gardens, and beset them with all kinde of trees.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 557. They take a … young man, whom they dress in the apparel of a woman, besetting him with divers odoriferous flowers and spices.
1760. J. Lee, Introd. Bot. (1776), 196. The Disk is beset with Points that are sharp and stiff.
1834. De Quincey, Cæsars, Wks. X. 231. A diadem or tiara beset with pearls.
† b. more vaguely: To surround, encircle, cover round with. Obs.
1580. Lyly, Euphues (1636), I ij b. His face did shine as it were beset with the Sun-beames.
1593. Nashe, Christ’s T., Wks. 1883–4, IV. 207. Euen as Angels are painted … besette with Sunne-beames so beset they theyr fore-heads … with glorious borrowed gleamy bushes.
1727. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Distilling, It’s necessary you should beset it [a Retort], even to the very End of the Beak, with a Sort of Stuff made of Potters Earth.
2. To set or station themselves round, to surround with hostile intent.
a. To set upon or assail on all sides (a person).
a. 1225. Meid. Maregr., xvii. Ðes houndes habbet me biset.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 15783. Þei bigon to awake And him faste aboute biset.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 143. Monkynde in þo stat of innocense when he … was not bysett wiþ enmyes.
c. 1440. York Myst., xliv. 55. Þe Jewes besettis vs in ilke aside.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 19 b. Than he is a strypplynge, all beset aboute with ennemyes.
1601. Shaks., Twel. N., V. i. 88. I … Drew to defend him, when he was beset.
1718. Pope, Iliad, XVII. 148. The lioness … beset by men and hounds.
1873. Symonds, Grk. Poets, vii. 194. The Erinnyes, whose business it is to beset the house of the evil-doer.
b. To invest, or surround (a place); to besiege. (Not now said of a regular army besieging a town).
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 300. Þe buruh … þet he heueden biset.
1297. R. Glouc., 387. Þuderward he heyde vaste, And þer castel bysette.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 7056. In his tyme was troy biset.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 3539. For þe Amyral … had be-set þe brigge aboute with strengþe and with gynne.
c. 1520. Adam Bel, 47, in Hazl., E. P. P., II. 141. Thys place hath ben besette for you.
1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia, III. ix. 79. Salvages, well armed, had inuironed the house, and beset the fields.
1740. L. Clarke, Hist. Bible, VI. 341. They went and beset the town by night.
1871. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), IV. xviii. 107. The partizans of Oswulf beset the house where Copsige was.
c. To occupy (a road, gate, or passage), esp. so as to prevent any one from passing.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 15012. Wiþ harpe & pipe … þe weye þei him bisette.
1580. Baret, Alv., B 559. All the wayes were beset with garrisons of enemies.
1635. N. R., trans. Camden’s Hist. Eliz., I. 75. Morton in the meane time beset all passages of access.
1753. Life J. Frith (1829), 76–7. Sir Thomas More … persecuted him both by land and sea, besetting all the ways, havens, and ports.
1852. McCulloch, Taxation, Introd. 28. The mob, which beset all the avenues to the House of Commons.
† d. To circumvent, entrap, catch. Obs.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Countr. Farm, 37. Hee shall make readie his Nets to catch Birds, and to beset the Hares.
3. fig. To encompass, surround, assail, possess detrimentally: a. said of temptations, dangers, difficulties, obstacles, evil influences.
a. 1000. Andreas (Gr.), 1257. Þa se halʓa wæs … earoþancum beseted.
c. 1200. Ormin, 12954. O mannkinn þatt wass all bisett Wiþþ siness þessterrnesse.
a. 1450. Knt. de la Tour (1868), 58. Whanne that two vices be sette one euelle delite, gladly they bringe her maister into temptacion.
1611. Bible, Heb. xii. 1. Let vs lay aside … the sinne which doth so easily beset vs.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 441, ¶ 1. [Man] is beset with Dangers on all sides.
1741. Richardson, Pamela, I. 73. A poor Maiden, that is hard beset.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 240. The difficulties by which the government was beset.
1874. Helps, Soc. Press., ii. 18. The hopelessness which gradually besets all people in a great town like London.
b. of the difficulties, perils, obstacles which beset an action, work or course.
1800. Currie, Life Burns (1800), I. Ded. 21. The task was beset with considerable difficulties.
1862. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), III. xii. 254. The tale is beset with contradictions.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 138. The difficulties that beset such an explanation.
c. of actual enemies forming schemes against one’s life or property. rare.
1682. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), I. 202. Our lives and estates are besett here.
† d. pass. To be possessed (with devils). Obs.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 176/1. The deuyls that Saynt Germayn had dryuen out of suche bodyes as were biseren. Ibid., 196/3. Men that were wood and byset with deuyls.
4. gen. To close round; to surround, hem in (Often with some allusion to senses 2 and 3, as in ‘to be beset by ice.’)
c. 1534. trans. Pol. Verg. Eng. Hist. (1846), I. 57. The towne … being on all sides beesett with wooddes and fenns.
1642. Rogers, Naaman, 345. Foggy clouds which doe beset the cleare sky.
1738. Wesley, Ps. cxxxix. iv. Within thy circling Arms I lie Beset on every side.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., x. (1856), 73. We are now again fast, completely ‘beset.’
1870. Hawthorne, Eng. Note-Bks. (1879), II. 243. The mountains which beset it round.
II. To set (in fig. sense), to bestow. All trans.
† 5. To set or place (one’s mind, affections, faith, trust, love) on or upon (any one); = SET v. Obs.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 101. Cristene men ne sculen heore bileafe bisettan on þere weor(l)dliche eahte.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Pers. T., ¶ 532. Thay ben accursed … that on such filthe bisetten here bileeve.
c. 1440. Generydes, 5021. I do very right, Though I besette my loue on suche a knyght.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., 295. His over great trust which … he bisettid upon hem.
1627. Bp. Hall, Metaphr. Ps., iv. Offer the truest sacrifice of broken hearts, on God besetting Your only trust.
† 6. To employ, expend, spend (one’s words, wit, money, time, pains, study). Obs. Cf. bestow.
a. 1240. Sawles Warde, in Lamb. Hom., 249. Warschipe þat best con bisetten hire wordes ant ec hire werkes.
a. 1300. Dame Siriz, 274. Neren never penes beter biset.
1340. Ayenb., 214. Me ssel alneway wel do and wel besette þane time ine guode workes.
c. 1386. Chaucer, C. T., Prol. 279. This worthi man ful wel his witte bisette.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., II. ix. 195. Forto bisette so mich labour and coste aboute ymagis.
c. 1560. in Hazl., E. P. P., I. 207. Here ys thy penyworth of ware; Yf thou thynke hyt not wele besett, Gyf hyt another.
† 7. To bestow, apportion, allot, transfer; spec. to bestow or give in marriage. Obs.
c. 1230. Hali Meid., 9. The poure [wummon] þat beoð wacliche iȝeouen and biset uuele.
c. 1325. Chron. Eng., 492, in Ritson’s Metr. Rom., II. 290. Thilke he delede on threo, Wel he bisette theo.
1480. Caxton, Chron. Eng., cxii. Orgarus thought his doughter shold wel be maryed, and wel beset upon hym.
1494. Fabyan, I. iv. 11. He beset or apoynted to hym the Countre of Walys.
1599. Bp. Hall, Sat., IV. iii. 69. The beare his feirce-nesse to his brood besets.
† 8. To set in order; arrange; ordain. Obs.
1413. E. E. Wills (1882), 19. I, Richard Ȝonge, Brewer of London, be-set my testament in thys maner.
1494. Fabyan, VI. clxxx. 178. Than this noble prynce Edward, after thise thinges, be set hym in an ordre.
c. 1500. Blowbol’s Test., in Halliwell, Nugæ Poeticæ, 3. Withoute tarying ye make your Testament, And by good avice alle thing well besett.
III. To become, suit. Cf. Sc. set, Fr. seoir.
† 9. To become, look well on, befit, set off. Obs.
1567. Drant, Horace De Arte P., A iiij. Sad wordes beset a sorye face; thretynge, the visage grim.
1598. R. Pollock, On 1 Thess. (1616), 258 (Jam.). If thou be the childe of God, doe as besets thy estate—sleep not, but wake.
† b. intr. To go well or accord with. Obs.
1599. Bp. Hall, Sat., I. vi. 13. How handsomely besets Dull spondees with the English dactilets.
