bethink
Americanverb (used with object)
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bethinks,
present (3rd person singular)
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bethought,
past participle, past
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bethinking
present participle
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to think; consider (used reflexively).
He bethought himself a moment.
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to remind (oneself ).
to bethink oneself of family obligations.
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to remember; recall (used reflexively).
She lives in the past now, bethinking herself of happier days.
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to determine; resolve.
Under the circumstances I could not otherwise bethink me.
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Archaic. to bear in mind; remember.
verb (used without object)
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bethinks,
present (3rd person singular)
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bethought,
past participle, past
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bethinking
present participle
verb
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to cause (oneself) to consider or meditate
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to remind (oneself)
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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bethinksimple
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bethinkssimple
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have bethoughtperfect
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has bethoughtperfect
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am bethinkingprogressive
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are bethinkingprogressive
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is bethinkingprogressive
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have been bethinkingperfect progressive
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has been bethinkingperfect progressive
Past
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bethoughtsimple
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had bethoughtperfect
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was bethinkingprogressive
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were bethinkingprogressive
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had been bethinkingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of bethink
before 1000; Middle English bethenken, Old English bethencan. See be-, think 1
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:
Yet many readers will bethink themselves of many Cynthias and wonder if it is too late, or just timely, to pass the book along.
From Time Magazine Archive
When a New Englander needs an image for swarming bees he may not bethink him of showered stars, yet sparks from a Fourth of July pinwheel are quite as effective and wholly permissible.
From Time Magazine Archive
But the head of the French department did not bethink himself in time to procure a bust of Ronsard to be duly "crowned," during the ceremony.
From Time Magazine Archive
If you have worked evil, you must bethink yourself of doing good.
From Human, All-Too-Human, Part II by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
But here, in trunk-upsetting Boston, I bethink me, and confess.
From From the Oak to the Olive A Plain record of a Pleasant Journey by Julia Ward Howe
Then the doctor bethinks himself of ultraviolet rays.
From Time Magazine Archive
Bosley, soon as left alone with his captive, bethinks him what he had best do with her.
From The Death Shot A Story Retold by Mayne Reid
But let us say that the young man is bold and ingenious, and bethinks him of a stratagem whereby to make acquaintance with the damsel.
From Judith Shakespeare Her love affairs and other adventures by William Black
Hrothgar, king of the Danes, lives happily and peacefully, and bethinks him to build a glorious hall called Hart.
From The Tale of Beowulf Sometime King of the Folk of the Weder Geats by Anonymous
In this finale the despairing Lionel bethinks him of his ring.
From The Standard Operas (12th edition) Their Plots, Their Music, and Their Composers by George P. (George Putnam) Upton
In his Discourse on Inequality, he lamented "the first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself of saying, 'This is mine,' and found people simple enough to believe him."
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2017
But the Kuomintang high command had bethought itself; the Gimo had sent assurances that he stood for open competition.
From Time Magazine Archive
Many a dark night has passed since the great Osman, looking into a pool of blood, saw a star and the crescent moon there reflected and bethought him of a design for the Turkish flag.*
From Time Magazine Archive
The line was that Britain, at least, had bethought herself, after hearing and acceding to Joseph Stalin's blunt demand for land action on the Invasion Coast.
From Time Magazine Archive
“Now. All night, I lay and I bethought myself—how to leave so I won’t be forgot? And behold.”
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
I could have informed her who had possessed the key, but refrained, bethinking me that the knowledge might only add to her distress and yet do no real service to me.
From The Courtship of Morrice Buckler A Romance by A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley) Mason
"Oh, that was merely a side-issue,--only an after-piece," said Frau von Leskjewitsch, bethinking herself.
From Erlach Court by Ossip Schubin
And I, bethinking me that, in spite of his gloomy forecast, Lord Bolingbroke would none the less serve the King with unremitting vigour, began to take heart again, and so pardoned Leonard Ashlock.
From Lawrence Clavering by A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley) Mason
I exclaimed, bethinking me of Jervas Rookley's threat.
From Lawrence Clavering by A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley) Mason
Then bethinking herself, she added: "It seems so strange that a gentleman should do all those things for himself."
From The Seven Cardinal Sins: Envy and Indolence by Eug?ne Sue
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.
