v. Also bestrow, and bestraw (obs.). Pa. pple. bestrowed; bestrewn, bestrown. For the forms see STREW. [OE. bi-, bestréowian, f. bi-, BE- 1 + stréowian to STREW. Cf. MHG. beströuwen, Du. bestrooijen, Da. beströe, Sw. beströ. Orig. a weak verb: the pple. bestrewn is recent, and due to analogy.]

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  1.  To strew (a surface) with; to cover more or less with things scattered about and lying flat. Often in pa. pple. as adj.

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a. 1000.  Job ii. 12. Ettm. 5. 38. Hi mid duste heora heafod bestreowodon.

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c. 1175.  Lamb. Hom., 5. Heo…nomen þa twigga and … bistreweden al þane weye.

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c. 1420.  Pallad. on Husb., III. 889. On a floor with chaf bystrowed.

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1555.  Fardle Facions, I. v. 75. They all to bestrawe the carckesse with salte.

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1596.  Shaks., Tam. Shr., Ind. ii. 42. Say thou wilt walke: we wil bestrow the ground.

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1697.  Potter, Antiq. Greece, II. iv. (1715), 231. Having bestrawed their heads with the Fruits of Ceres.

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1725.  Pope, Odyss., XXII. 273. Yon’ fierce man no more With bleeding Princes shall bestrow the floor.

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1815.  Wordsw., White Doe, I. 140. The dewy turf with flowers bestrown.

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1837.  Hawthorne, Amer. Note-Bks. (1871), I. 40. The brook is bestrewn with stones.

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  b.  transf. and fig.

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1611.  Speed, Theat. Gt. Brit. (1614), 131/1. The Kingdom of Scotland … every where bestrewed with cities, townes, and borrowes.

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1660.  T. Watson, in Spurgeon’s Treas. Dav., Ps. xxxii. 1. He who is pardoned, is all bestrewed with mercy.

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1859.  Helps, Friends in C., Ser. II. I. i. 30. His daily work thickly bestrewed with trouble and worry.

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  2.  To strew or scatter (things) about.

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1667.  Milton, P. L., I. 311. So thick bestrown Abject and lost lay these, covering the Flood.

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1793.  Joel Barlow, Hasty-Pudding, I. (1847), 4.

        The yellow flour, bestrew’d and stir’d with haste,
Swells in the flood and thickens to a paste.

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  3.  Of things: To lie scattered over (a surface).

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1718.  Pope, Iliad, II. 266. Thin hairs bestrew’d his long misshapen head.

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1794.  Wordsw., Guilt & Sorr., Wks. I. 107. In a dry nook where fern the floor bestrows.

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1832.  Ht. Martineau, Ella of Gar., vii. 83. To sweep away the sand and rubbish which bestrewed it.

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