unbefit

English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɪt

Verb

unbefit (third-person singular simple present unbefits, present participle unbefitting, simple past and past participle unbefitted)

1. (transitive, archaic, rare) Not to befit or suit; to be inappropriate for.
   • 1822, Bernard Barton, Napoleon and Other Poems, page 56:

     I cannot think upon thee with the esteem
     Thy talents should have won thee; and the page,
     Which for a fallen enemy could teem
     With scorn; or with the dead its warfare wage;
     Would shame the bard, not thee, and unbefit the age.

2. (transitive, archaic, rare) To make unfit or unsuitable.
   • 1874, Journal of Materia Medica, volume 13, page 161:

     No stain tarnishes the trappings to unbefit them for the adornment and control of the well groomed animal that restlessly confesses to his new experience.