behoof

[bih-hoof]

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noun, plural be·hooves

[bih-hoovz] /bɪˈhuvz/.

use; advantage; benefit: The money was spent for his own behoof.

Origin of behoof

before 1000; Middle English behove, Old English behōf profit, need; cognate with Dutch behoef, German Behuf

behoove

[bih-hoov](chiefly in impersonal use)

verb (used with object), be·hooved, be·hoov·ing.

to be necessary or proper for, as for moral or ethical considerations; be incumbent on: It behooves the court to weigh evidence impartially.
to be worthwhile to, as for personal profit or advantage: It would behoove you to be nicer to those who could help you.

verb (used without object), be·hooved, be·hoov·ing.

Archaic. to be needful, proper, or due: Perseverance is a quality that behooves in a scholar.

Origin of behoove

before 900; Middle English behoven, Old English behōfian to need (behōf behoof + -ian infinitive suffix)

Synonyms for behoove

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2. benefit, advantage, serve, better, advance; suit, befit, beseem.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for behooves

befit, suit, beseem

Examples from the Web for behooves

Contemporary Examples of behooves

I will still say that it behooves us not to forget that Morsi was no democrat.
Coming Clean on Egypt
Michael Tomasky
August 15, 2013
Given that said government is now spending almost a quarter of our annual income, it behooves us to keep an eye on it.
Is DC Real Estate Headed Up or Down?
Megan McArdle
October 23, 2012

Historical Examples of behooves

And so, my lads, it behooves us to be cautious with a very great caution.
The Rock of Chickamauga
Joseph A. Altsheler
It behooves me all the more to see to it that I am not duped in the end.
Casanova's Homecoming
Arthur Schnitzler
It behooves the materialists to use language with more precision and accuracy than this.
Life: Its True Genesis
R. W. Wright
We know nothing about it, and, therefore, it behooves us to say nothing.
Homeward Bound
James Fenimore Cooper
It behooves us, gentlemen, to think first of the cities of our King.
Sir Henry Morgan, Buccaneer
Cyrus Townsend Brady

British Dictionary definitions for behooves

behoof

noun plural -hooves

rare advantage or profit

Word Origin for behoof

Old English behōf; related to Middle High German behuof something useful; see behove

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for behooves

behoof

c.1200, "use, benefit, advantage;" Old English had bihoflic "useful," implying *bihof "advantage, utility;" from Proto-Germanic *bi-hof "that which binds, requirement, obligation" (cf. Old Frisian bihof "advantage," Dutch behoef, Middle High German bihuof "useful thing," German Behuf "benefit, use, advantage"). In the common Germanic compound, the first element, likely intensive, is cognate with be- and the second with Old English hof, past tense of hebban "to raise" (see heave (v.)). The original sense is perhaps, then, "taking up (for oneself)."

behoove

Old English behofian "to have need of, have use for," verbal form of the ancient compound word represented by behoof.

Historically, it rimes with move, prove, but being now mainly a literary word, it is generally made to rime with rove, grove, by those who know it only in books. [OED]