becall
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle English bicallen, bikallen, equivalent to be- + call.
Verb
[edit]becall (third-person singular simple present becalls, present participle becalling, simple past and past participle becalled)
- (transitive) To accuse.
- 1741, Conny Keyber (pseudonym; attributed to Henry Fielding), An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews, edited by Sheridan W. Baker, Jr., Berkeley: University of California Press, 1953, Letter 6, p. 27,[1]
- I no sooner see him, but I scream out to Mrs. Jervis, she feigns likewise but just to come to herself; we both begin, she to becall, and I to bescratch very liberally.
- 1878, Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native[2], Book 1, Chapter 9:
- You must not becall me for laughing when you spoke; you mistook when you thought I laughed at you as a foolish man.
- 1741, Conny Keyber (pseudonym; attributed to Henry Fielding), An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews, edited by Sheridan W. Baker, Jr., Berkeley: University of California Press, 1953, Letter 6, p. 27,[1]
- (transitive, obsolete) To call upon; call forth; challenge.
- (transitive, obsolete) To call; summon.
- (transitive) To call names; insult.