bethreatened
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]- bethreaten’d (obsolete except archaically)
Etymology
[edit]From be- + threatened.
Pronunciation
[edit]- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: bĭthrĕʹtnd, IPA(key): /bɪˈθɹɛtn̩d/
Adjective
[edit]bethreatened (not comparable)
- (obsolete, rare) Threatened by mortal danger.
- 1635, Francis Quarles, Emblems, divine and moral (1818 reprint, Chiswick Press), book III, emblem 11, page 178
- My plummet’s light, it cannot sink nor sound; // Oh, shall my rock-bethreaten’d soul be drown’d?
- 1635, Francis Quarles, Emblems, divine and moral (1818 reprint, Chiswick Press), book III, emblem 11, page 178
References
[edit]- “† bethreatened” listed as a derivation of “Be- prefix”, treated on pages 719–723 of volume I (A–B) of A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles [1st ed., 1885]
Be- prefix: — OE. be-, weak or stressless form of the prep. and adv. bí (biᵹ), By. […] 2. Forming intensive verbs, with sense of ‘thoroughly (extension of 1), soundly, much, conspicuously, to excess, ridiculously.’ […] † bethreatened […] 1635 Quarles Emb. iii. xi, My rock-bethreaten’d soul.