beset
Meanings
- Senses relating to surrounding.
- To assail or attack (someone) from all sides; to set about.
- To occupy and block (an entrance, a passage, etc.), especially to prevent people from passing.
- To decorate (someone or something) by surrounding with accessories, etc.
- Followed by with: to encircle or surround (someone or something); to hem in.
- To trap (a ship) within frozen sea; to ice in.
- Of dangers, difficulties, enemies, etc.: to negatively affect (someone or something); to trouble.
- Of soldiers, etc.: to surround (a place) to compel surrender; to besiege.
- To capture (an animal); to ensnare, to entrap.
- Senses relating to placing or setting.
- To arrange or set (something) in order.
- To give (something); to bestow, to present.
Pronunciation
Word forms
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”)