bestowed

[bih-stohd]

adjective

1. presented as a gift or privilege; given or conferred.

   As the official addressed them, some members of the audience shouted with joy over their newly bestowed citizenship.

2. Archaic.,  applied; put to some use.

   If I regarded the present discussion concerning baptism as only about mere mode or form, I should think my time and labor poorly bestowed.

verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of bestow.

Other Word Forms

• unbestowed adjective
• well-bestowed adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of bestowed¹

bestow ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. )

Example Sentences

While extolled by supporters as Venezuela’s “dama de hierro” — the iron lady, a sobriquet bestowed decades ago on British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher — Machado is a controversial figure, even within the Venezuelan opposition.

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Foreign policy becomes an instrument of naked personal despotism, with favors bestowed on those who burnish the leader’s vanity, and yanked away from those who decline to do so.

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The hayseed county that begat Richard Nixon and the boysenberry also bestowed the Righteous Brothers’ “blue-eyed soul” and the drive-in church upon the world.

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Gilroy’s win marked the first Primetime Emmy Award bestowed upon the spy thriller, which had won four awards at the Creative Arts Emmys just last week.

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His followers gave him the title of imam, an unusual honour for a living Shia cleric and one bestowed on him in recognition of his work on behalf of the Shia community.

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