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bethink

[bih-thingk]
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verb (used with object), be·thought, be·think·ing.
  1. to think; consider (used reflexively): He bethought himself a moment.
  2. to remind (oneself): to bethink oneself of family obligations.
  3. to remember; recall (used reflexively): She lives in the past now, bethinking herself of happier days.
  4. to determine; resolve: Under the circumstances I could not otherwise bethink me.
  5. Archaic. to bear in mind; remember.
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verb (used without object), be·thought, be·think·ing.
  1. Archaic. to consider; meditate.
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Origin of bethink

before 1000; Middle English bethenken, Old English bethencan. See be-, think1
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

reminiscerememberdeliberatedeviserecallmindrecollectreflect

Examples from the Web for bethink

Historical Examples

  • Might he not bethink himself, and come again, and say he was sorry he had so left her?

    Weighed and Wanting

    George MacDonald

  • But stay, now I bethink me, there is one thing reckoned not upon—the priest.

  • Be it so; only, bethink you that one of us will infallibly be killed.

    A Hero of Our Time

    M. Y. Lermontov

  • But bethink you of them, and you will unriddle them for yourself, perhaps.

  • Yet that course seemed no less futile than any other of which I could bethink me.

British Dictionary definitions for bethink

bethink

verb -thinks, -thinking or -thought archaic, or dialect
  1. to cause (oneself) to consider or meditate
  2. (tr often foll by of) to remind (oneself)
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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 bethink

v.

reflexive verb, Old English beþencan "to consider," from be- + þencan "to think" (see think). Related: Bethought.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper