belive

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: bĭlīv'
• (UK) IPA: /bɪˈlʌɪv/
• (GenAm) IPA: /bəˈlaɪv/

  Rhymes: -aɪv

Etymology 1

From Middle English beliven, from Old English belīfan (“to remain”), from Proto-Germanic *bilībaną (“to remain”), from Proto-Indo-European *lip- (“to stick, glue”). Cognate with West Frisian bliuwe (“to stay”), Dutch blijven (“to remain”), German bleiben (“to remain”), Danish blive (“to be, remain”). More at leave.

Alternative forms

• bilive, blive
• bleve, bileve, bilave, blewe

Verb

belive (third-person singular simple present belives, present participle beliving, simple past belove, past participle beliven)

1. (intransitive, now chiefly dialectal) To remain, stay.
   • 1900 (original date: 1483), Jacobus (de Voragine), William Caxton, Frederick Startridge Ellis, The golden legend, or, Lives of the saints:

     So there bleveth no more, but I that am servant to the spirit, may lie down and die. In which death I glorify myself, but I am greatly troubled in my mind, that my riches which I had ordained to God be wasted and spent in foul things.

2. (intransitive, now chiefly dialectal) To abide, continue.

Related terms

• belave (2)
• beleave

Translations

to remain, stay

• Russian: оставаться (ru) (ostavátʹsja)

to abide, continue

• Russian: оставаться (ru) (ostavátʹsja)

Etymology 2

From Middle English belive, bilife (“actively", literally, "by life”). More at by, life.

Alternative forms

• blive

Adverb

belive (comparative more belive, superlative most belive)

1. (obsolete except Scotland) Quickly, forthwith.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.v:

     By that same way the direfull dames doe driue / Their mournefull charet, fild with rusty blood, / And downe to Plutoes house are come biliue [...].

2. (dialectal, chiefly Scotland) Soon, presently, before long; by and by; anon