bemean

American

[bih-meen] / bɪˈmin /

verb (used with object)

Archaic.

bemeaned, bemeaning

to make mean; demean; debase (usually used reflexively).

bemean British

/ bɪˈmiːn /

verb

a less common word for demean 1

"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

Etymology

Origin of bemean

First recorded in 1645–55; be- + mean ²

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

I hain't blind and I hain't deef, and I can't holp seein' the way she does, and a hearin' her bemean you about me all the time nearly.

From The Tobacco Tiller A Tale of the Kentucky Tobacco Fields by Hackley, Sarah Bell

He was fighting for his life, and no eye could bemean that effort.

From The Strength of the Pines by Marshall, Edison

To dream that you have a wooden leg, denotes that you will bemean yourself in a false way to your friends.

From Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted, or what's in a dream: a scientific and practical exposition by Miller, Gustavus Hindman

Faith, I wadna sae bemean mysel' to get the king oot o' Whitehall—wha they tell me is no that ill to get, gin yin had the chance—and in muckle the same way as Tam Lindsay.

From The Men of the Moss-Hags Being a history of adventure taken from the papers of William Gordon of Earlstoun in Galloway by Crockett, S. R. (Samuel Rutherford)

She'll hab to walk and talk, and bofe bemean and brag!

From The Tobacco Tiller A Tale of the Kentucky Tobacco Fields by Hackley, Sarah Bell

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023