bereave
Americanverb (used with object)
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bereaves,
present (3rd person singular)
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bereaved,
past participle, past
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bereft,
past participle
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bereaving
present participle
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to deprive and make desolate, especially by death (usually followed byof ).
Illness bereaved them of their mother.
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to deprive ruthlessly or by force (usually followed byof ).
The war bereaved them of their home.
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Obsolete. to take away by violence.
verb
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(usually foll by of) to deprive (of) something or someone valued, esp through death
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obsolete to remove by force
Usage
What does bereave mean? To bereave means to take away and leave devastated. Death bereaves us of our loved ones. Bereave can also mean to deprive by force, as in War has bereaved them of their homes. Those who are devastated by the loss of loved ones can be described as bereaved or bereft. These words can also apply to those who have suffered other serious losses. Bereave is most often used in the context of death. The noun form of bereave is bereavement, referring to a period of mourning or or state of intense grief, especially following the death of a loved one. Bereavement can also be used more generally to mean the state of having lost something very dear. Example: Violence has bereaved us of yet another young person.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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bereavesimple
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bereavessimple
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have bereavedperfect
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have bereftperfect
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has bereavedperfect
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has bereftperfect
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am bereavingprogressive
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are bereavingprogressive
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is bereavingprogressive
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have been bereavingperfect progressive
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has been bereavingperfect progressive
Past
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bereavedsimple
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had bereavedperfect
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had bereftperfect
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was bereavingprogressive
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were bereavingprogressive
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had been bereavingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of bereave
First recorded before 900; Middle English bereven, Old English berēafian; cognate with Dutch berooven, German berauben, Gothic biraubōn; equivalent to be- + reave 1
Explanation
The verb bereave is used when death takes someone away from you, depriving you of their presence. Overfeeding might bereave you of beloved goldfish. Think of bereave as an old-fashioned verb that's much more likely to show up in the adjective bereaved these days. A year after you've been bereaved by the loss of your childhood dog, you may feel ready to think about a new puppy. This word comes from the Old English bereafian, "to take by violence, seize, or rob," which pretty much sums up how it feels to be bereaved.
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.
See Examples For:
Half of our crew were locals, so we offered them to take time off to bereave should they choose to.
From Salon ● May 12, 2023
Yet, when discretion doth bereave The plaints that they should utter,Then thy discretion may perceive That silence is a suitor.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 10, 2012
Life after college can feel like a desperate and depressing limbo where recent grads bereave the loss of carefree times when they aren’t scouring Craigslist for employment.
From Washington Post
"Luther never intended to bereave the church of her mystery," says one Sammlung theologian.
From Time Magazine Archive
Not a definite illness, but a lingering malaise, which seemed to bereave him of all spring and energy.
From Beside Still Waters by Arthur Christopher Benson
“It utterly bereaves me to pass on the news that I have been advised by my medical team here in the UK to cancel my upcoming USA book tour,” Moore wrote on Instagram.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 11, 2023
Queen Elizabeth II will be seated alone as she bereaves the death of her husband of 73 years, Prince Philip, at his funeral on Saturday.
From Fox News ● Apr. 16, 2021
Science bereaves Nature of her dread and fearsomeness, it breaks the spell which the ignorance and credulity of men have cast upon her.
From The Last Harvest by John Burroughs
But still we yield thee to no stranger's care; No unknown foe our tender love bereaves; Thou goest the angels' hallow'd bliss to share, A Father thy exalted soul receives!
From Poems by Matilda Betham
Their shepherd now leaves them To howl and to roar— Of his presence bereaves them, To feed some young breeze On the violet odour, And to teach it on shore To rock the green trees.
From Notes and Queries, Number 195, July 23, 1853 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc by George Bell
A civic group and bereaved families filed a complaint accusing members of the Shinsegae Group, which operates Starbucks Korea, of defaming and insulting the victims and relatives.
From Barron's ● Aug. 5, 2026
Finally, the Daily Mirror reports on families calling for a public inquiry into the funeral director who failed to bury or cremate people and gave bereaved relatives the ashes of strangers.
From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026
Its founders staged a sit-in in Delhi, demanding Pradhan's resignation, education reforms and compensation for the bereaved families.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
Bush, who ran Legacy Independent Funeral Directors in Hull, was trusted by bereaved families but mistreated them on an "almost industrial scale", Paxton said.
From Barron's ● Jul. 27, 2026
Good Lord!’ says he, ‘Camilla, what can it signify so long as the poor bereaved little things are in black?’
From "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens
But warmer oceans are also often bereft of the high-energy prey these juvenile salmon need for rapid growth when they reach the saltwater.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
Last week’s men’s tournament at London’s Queen’s Club, an important warm-up for Wimbledon, was bereft of top-10 players.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 21, 2026
In a later conversation, in July 2025, the peer described the No 10 operation as "beleaguered and bereft" and in need of a "complete revamp".
From BBC ● Jun. 1, 2026
The trend underscores a Wild West internet landscape that is largely bereft of guardrails as false narratives erode digital trust.
From Barron's ● Apr. 11, 2026
In fact - and this strikes one as rather curious -I cannot really recall seeing her more bereft than on that morning.
From "The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro
Even those who are still alive are forced to spend parts of their existence inadvertently bereaving the death of a life they were promised.
From Salon ● Jun. 7, 2025
Culkin, 39, pressed that the death of Dakota – whose nickname was Cody – hit everyone in their family differently and they all were "torn up inside" while bereaving the accident.
From Fox News ● Oct. 6, 2021
It threatened to force them to become again the instrument of bereaving their father of his darling child, and bringing about that very calamity which they had pledged themselves should never happen.
From The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Genesis by Marcus Dods
So sin is deceiving, Bewitching, bereaving; ’Twill pierce through the heart, and invite you to sing; ’Twill put on fair faces, To woo your embraces, But after you’ve grasp’d it, there follows a sting!
From Awd Isaac, The Steeple Chase, and other Poems With a glossary of the Yorkshire Dialect by John Castillo
Had the Italian National Council, bereaving themselves of Italian bayonets, held a real plebiscite—secret or otherwise—the result would doubtless have given them pain, but no surprise....
From The Birth of Yugoslavia, Volume 2 by Henry Baerlein
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
