bestead

¹ American  

[bih-sted] / bɪˈstɛd /

verb (used with object)

besteaded, besteaded, bestead, besteading

1. to help; assist; serve; avail.

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bestead ² American  

[bih-sted] / bɪˈstɛd /

adjective

1. Archaic. placed or situated, often unfavorably or in difficulty.

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Etymology

Origin of bestead¹

First recorded in 1575–85; be- + stead

Origin of bestead²

1300–50; Middle English bisted, bistad, equivalent to bi be- + sted, variant of stad placed < Old Norse staddr, past participle of stethja to place, derivative of stathr place

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bestead

But the occasional honest mechanic or skilled workman in search of employment was hard bestead.

From The Making Of A Novelist An Experiment In Autobiography by David Christie Murray

And hard bestead was Sir Owen to shield himself from the smashing blows which rained upon him.

From King Arthur's Knights The Tales Re-told for Boys & Girls by Henry Gilbert

Around you call your merry men all    To whom you’ve given bread; For refuge we to the Kirk will flee    Since we are thus bestead.

From Little Engel a ballad with a series of epigrams from the Persian by George Henry Borrow

XX Thus with distress and sorrow was Etzel ill bestead, Right bitterly bewailing his kin and subjects dead.

From The Nibelungenlied Revised Edition by Unknown

Mr Scrip," said Stagman, "you must know here is a friend of mine who is presently sore bestead, and lacketh thine aid.

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 367, May 1846 by Various

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