bethatch
verbEtymology From Middle English bithecchen, from Old English beþeċċan (“to cover; protect; cover over; conceal”), from Proto-West Germanic *biþakkjan, equivalent to be- + thatch. Cognate with Dutch bedekken (“to cover”), German bedecken (“to cover”). More at its doublet bedeck. Alteration in vowel after Middle English perhaps due to thatch.
1
Uncommon To cover with thatch; to thatch.
- Part it behind, like terrier's back, Bethatch the front like wheaten stack, […]1865, Richard Francis Burton (sir.), Stone talk:
2
Broadly, Humorous, Nonce word, Uncommon To cover with hair.
- Both are coolly intense, well bethatched, bell-bottomed and bespectacled.1969, Henry Robinson Luce, Gordon Parks, Life:
- Baldies did not like their condition: "Witness their frantic efforts to keep among the ranks of the bethatched. […]"1996, Kerry Segrave, Baldness: a social history: