bedew

From Middle English bidewen, bideawen; equivalent to be- +‎ dew. Cognate with Dutch bedauwen (“to bedew”), German betauen (“to bedew”).

bedew (third-person singular simple present bedews, present participle bedewing, simple past and past participle bedewed)

1. (transitive) To make wet with or as if with dew.
   • a. 1701 (date written), John Dryden, “The Epithalamium of Helen and Menelaus. From the 18th Idyllium of Theocritus.”, in The Miscellaneous Works of John Dryden, , volume II, London: J and R Tonson, , published 1760, →OCLC, page 412:

     Balm, from a ſilver-box diſtill'd around, / Shall all bedew the roots, and ſcent the ſacred ground.

   • 1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter VIII, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. , volume II, London: for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC, pages 132–133:

     Soft tears again bedewed my cheeks, and I even raised my humid eyes with thankfulness towards the blessed sun which bestowed such joy upon me.

   • 1819 (date written), Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Masque of Anarchy. A Poem. , London: Edward Moxon , published 1832, →OCLC, stanzas XXXV–XXXVI, pages 18–19:

     As if their own indignant earth, / Which gave the sons of England birth, / Had felt their blood upon her brow, / And shuddering with a mother's throe, / Had turned every drop of blood, / By which her face had been bedewed / To an accent unwithstood, / As if her heart had cried aloud: […]

   • 1836, Eliza Cook, The Old Armchair:

     I LOVE it, I love it ; and who shall dare
     To chide me for loving that old Arm-chair ?
     I've treasured it long as a sainted prize ;
     I've bedewed it with tears, and embalmed it with sighs.

   • 1885, W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan, composer, The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu, London: Chappel & Co., , →OCLC:

     While sympathetic tears / My cheeks bedew

• bewed, dweeb

• IPA^(key): /bɛˈdɛw/

bedew

1. beautiful

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɛ.dɛf/
• Rhymes: -ɛdɛf
• Syllabification: be‧dew

bedew m animal

1. (obsolete) Alternative form of badawja

• Samuel Bogumił Linde (1807–1814) “bedew”, in Słownik języka polskiego
• Aleksander Zdanowicz (1861) “bedew”, in Słownik języka polskiego, Wilno 1861
• J. Karłowicz, A. Kryński, W. Niedźwiedzki, editors (1900), “badawja, bedew”, in Słownik języka polskiego (in Polish), volume 1, Warsaw, page 81