bewrite

verb — 3 senses

bewrite

verb

Etymology From Middle English bewriten, from Old English bewrītan (“to write, record, copy”), from Proto-West Germanic *biwrītan (“to write down; write about”), equivalent to be- (“about, over”) + write. Cognate with Old Frisian biwrīta (“to write down”), Middle Low German bewriten (“to engrave; to pronounce a blessing”), German bereiẞen (“to scale something by hand, carry out manually”). Compare also Dutch beschrijven (“to describe”), German beschreiben (“to describe”), Swedish beskriva (“to describe”).

1

To write about; describe.

  • I vow and purpose, here in the presence of " Billy Shakspeare," to bewrite this ill-starred foolscap!!1838, The Yale literary magazine, volume 3:
  • I humbly beg of you, for God's sake and your own, to read what I here presume to bewrite: [...]1878, Philip Dwyer, The Diocese of Killaloe from the Reformation to the close of the Eighteenth century:
2 more examples
  • "I said it was a pleasureful thing to be thus bewritten upward. [...]"1926, Blanche Colton Williams, Best American stories:
  • This harvesting bewrites the unhealable Monogrammed Beach Towels of affair and assenting a brew-house.2011, The history of the Chronoswiss brand can only reach
2

To write to.

  • After I bewrote thee yesterday Mrs. Neville drove Lady Charlotte, young Bagot (Clerk) and self into Glastonbury.1905, Charles Hallam Elton Brookfield, Frances Mary Brookfield, Mrs. Brookfield and her circle: Volume 1:
3

To write; write from; copy.

  • And it was in just one of these accessions of strength, (which after all, I count only as seductive illusions,) that I found myself with pen and paper, bewriting page after page — sketching men and scenes that I thought you would be glad to see, [...]1850, Donald Grant Mitchell, The battle summer::
Derived terms
bewriting, bewritten

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.