beswear

English

Etymology

From be- +‎ swear.

Verb

beswear (third-person singular simple present beswears, present participle beswearing, simple past beswore, past participle besworn)

1. (transitive) To swear by; swear about or regarding; swear at or to; promise
   • 1888, Teutonic mythology, Jacob Grimm, James Steven Stallybrass, tr. by J.S. Stallybrass - Volume 4:

     Some masters of the art take a pure child and set him in their lap, then lift his hand up and let him look into his nail, and beswear the child and the nail with a great adjuration, and then speak in the child's ear three unknown words, whereof one is Oriel, the others I withhold for fear of offending.

   • 1895, The Saga Library:

     Thereupon they met themselves, and then peace was talked over, and this was the matter agreed on, that the kings beswore each other brotherhood and settled peace between them while they should both be alive; [...]

   • 1903, The Menorah, volume 34:

     Abraham beswore his servant, Eliezer, by putting the latter's hand under his thigh.

   • 2013, Shaul Shaked, Siam Bhayro, James Nathan Ford, Aramaic Bowl Spells:

     I beswear you that you should be struck in your pericardium by the lance of the mighty [Qitaros], who is ruler over demons, dēvs and liliths.

   • 2016, Bucky Williams—Hooker PhD, Angel Wing Begonias:

     But if you will beswear what / Others think and be my love [...]

Anagrams

• bewares