betide

American  

[bih-tahyd] / bɪˈtaɪd /

verb (used with object)

• betides,
  present (3rd person singular)
• betided,
  past participle,  past
• betiding
  present participle

1. to happen to; come to; befall.

   Woe betide the villain!

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verb (used without object)

• betides,
  present (3rd person singular)
• betided,
  past participle,  past
• betiding
  present participle

1. to happen; come to pass.

   Whatever betides, maintain your courage.

betide British  

/ bɪˈtaɪd /

verb

1. to happen or happen to; befall (often in the phrase woe betide ( someone ))

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Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

• betiding
  present
• betided
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• betide
  simple
• betides
  simple
• have betided
  perfect
• has betided
  perfect
• am betiding
  progressive
• are betiding
  progressive
• is betiding
  progressive
• have been betiding
  perfect progressive
• has been betiding
  perfect progressive

Past

• betided
  simple
• had betided
  perfect
• was betiding
  progressive
• were betiding
  progressive
• had been betiding
  perfect progressive

Future

• will betide
  simple
• will have betided
  perfect
• will be betiding
  progressive
• will have been betiding
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of betide

First recorded in 1125–75, betide is from the Middle English word betiden. See be-, tide ²

Explanation

When something betides you, it happens to you. Betide is a literary way of saying “happen,” like in this quote from Jane Austin’s Persuasion, “Woe betide him, and her too, when it comes to things of consequence….” This is an old-fashioned word for things happening, especially uncertain or negative things. This word often appears with woe as in "Woe betide all who date my sister!" Which means, basically, something bad will happen to you if you date her. If you say, "What will the new day betide?" it means, "What will happen tomorrow?" Betide means about the same thing as bechance and befall. We all want good things to betide us.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

betide betides betided betiding

Woe betide the philistine who requests a salt shaker or asks that a meticulously prepared dish be spice-bombed.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026

Woe betide anyone who didn't meet Amorim's standards.

From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2025

Woe betide the grounds passholder who shows up at the “wrong” entrance; you may be made to walk several blocks, though several on Monday attempted to argue with U.N. police.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 19, 2022

Woe betide the civic leader in a company town who threatens to buck the company’s interests.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 4, 2022

Woe betide the plant whose genetic program is mismatched to the latitude of the field in which it is planted!

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

But I have to wonder if, whatever betides, I can stay upbeat in spirit.

From The New Yorker ● Dec. 16, 2019

It fails to mention Ogden Nash's "One rule which woe betides the banker who fails to heed it,/ Which is you must never lend any money to anybody unless they don't need it."

From Time Magazine Archive

Befall and betide are transitive; happen is intransitive; something befalls or betides a person or happens to him.

From English Synonyms and Antonyms With Notes on the Correct Use of Prepositions by James Champlin Fernald

“Ill luck never betides us,” replied Herfrida, with an expression of bland assurance on her handsome face.

From Erling the Bold by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne

Traffic with it, and you miss the real lift of life, that which makes life good, whatever betides.

From The Black Colonel by James Milne

This should have served to prefigure to me that my soul, once free and sovereign of itself, was on that day to lay aside its sovereignty and become a slave, as it betided.

From La Fiammetta by Giovanni Boccaccio

Now paupers got sick and got well as Nature pleased: but woe betided the rich in an age when, for one Mr. Malady killed, three fell by Dr. Remedy.

From The Cloister and the Hearth A Tale of the Middle Ages by Charles Reade

Hard by the bridge, there was a stone cross upon a knoll, and here the group had collected—half-a-dozen women and one tall fellow in a russet smock—discussing what the bell betided.

From The Black Arrow A Tale of the Two Roses by Robert Louis Stevenson

When the peahen saw what had betided the duck, she came down from the tree, saying, 'I see that misfortunes lie in wait for all.

From The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Volume III by John Payne

These were anchored a hundred yards from shore, and Brian saw the danger that betided as the stream of fugitives swept down toward the boats.

From Nuala O'Malley by H. Bedford-Jones

Betide, betided or betid, betiding, betided or betid.

From The Grammar of English Grammars by Goold Brown

There was an Ark with scrolls of the Law in the room, betiding a piety and a purse beyond the normal.

From Ghetto Comedies by Israel Zangwill

With no thought of ill betiding, "Thus," we said, "life's years shall be For us twain a river gliding To a calm, eternal sea."

From The Argosy Vol. 51, No. 4, April, 1891 by Charles W. Wood

The death of my son betiding while my soul was under this anxiety, I thought of nothing but resigning my dominions, and retiring for ever from the sight of mankind.

From Shorter Novels, Eighteenth Century The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia; The Castle of Otranto, a Gothic Story; Vathek, an Arabian Tale by William Beckford

O I know the Hand that is guiding me Through the shadow to the light; And I know that all betiding me Is meted out aright.

From Poems with Power to Strengthen the Soul by James Mudge