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beldame. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
beldame, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
beldame in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From late (1400–1450) Middle English bel (“fine”) + dam (“mother”), from Old French bele (“beautiful”) + dame (“woman”).
Pronunciation
Noun
beldame (plural beldames)
- (obsolete) A grandmother.
1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. , part II (books IV–VI), London: [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, page 470:There he was welcom'd of that honeſt ſyre,
And of his aged Beldame homely well;
Who him beſought himſelfe to diſattyre,
And reſt himſelfe, till ſupper time befell.
c. 1597 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The History of Henrie the Fourth; , quarto edition, London: P S for Andrew Wise, , published 1598, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:Diſeaſed nature oftentimes breakes forth, / In ſtrange eruptions, oft the teeming earth / Is with a kind of collicke pincht and vext, / By the impriſoning of vnruly wind / Within her vvombe, vvhich for enlargement ſtriuing / Shakes the old Beldame earth, and topples down / Steeples and moſſegrovvn towers.
- (now archaic) An old woman, particularly an ugly one.
1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, IV.i:Justice is an old hobbling beldame, and I can't get her to keep pace with Generosity, for the soul of me.
1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. , volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., , →OCLC:[…] have a curiosity to hear my fortune told: therefore, Sam, order the beldame forward.
1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 25:The tablets upon which the events of the day were recorded refer to enchantresses, and we can conclude that they were by no means restricted to ancient beldames.
1982, TC Boyle, Water Music, Penguin, published 2006, page 6:Suddenly the beldam shrieks as if she's been stuck with a dagger, long rasping insuck of breath: ‘Eeeeeeeee!’
Synonyms
References
Anagrams
Spanish
Verb
beldame
- second-person singular voseo imperative of beldar combined with me