begirt

English

Verb

begirt (third-person singular simple present begirts, present participle begirting, simple past and past participle begirted or begirt)

1. (obsolete) To surround or enclose
   • 1749, John Cleland, Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure Part 5

     and now I had him every way encircled and begirt; and having drawn him home to me, I kept him fast there, as if I had sought to unite bodies with him at that point.

   • 1663, Samuel Butler, Hudibras:

     Who having round begirt the palace, / (As once a moth they do the gallows,) / As members gave the sign about, / Set up their throats with hideous shout.

     (Part 1, Canto 2, Lines 532-535)

References

• OED 2nd edition 1989