shend

English

Etymology

From Middle English shenden, from Old English sċendan (“to put to shame, blame, disgrace”), from Proto-West Germanic *skandijan (“to scold, berate”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kem- (“to cover”). Cognate with Dutch schenden (“to infringe, profane, defile”), German schänden (“defile”). Related to Old English sċand (“infamy, shame, scandal”). More at shand, shame.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃɛnd/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛnd

Verb

shend (third-person singular simple present shends, present participle shending, simple past and past participle shent)

1. (obsolete) To disgrace or put to shame.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Her fawning love with foule disdainefull spight
     He would not shend

   • c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     Do you hear how we are shent for keeping your greatness back?

2. (archaic) To blame.
3. (archaic) To destroy; to spoil.
   • 1880, Richard Francis Burton, Os Lusíadas, volume II, page 279:

     Go see their fleet and arms, their manner view / of moulded metal, ready all to shend[.]

4. (archaic) To overpower; to surpass.
   • 1880, Richard Francis Burton, Os Lusíadas, volume II, page 339:

     Since sware the Parcæ unto me, their friend, / they shall adore my name, my favour prize; / and, as their feats of armèd prowess shend / all feats of rival Rome, I lief devise / some mode of aidance in what things I may, / far as our force o'er man extendeth sway.

Conjugation

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:shend.

Derived terms

• shendship

Anagrams

• Dehns, hends