bethreatened

English

Alternative forms

• bethreaten’d (obsolete except archaically)

Etymology

be- +‎ threatened

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: bĭthrĕʹtnd, IPA^(key): /bɪˈθɹɛtn̩d/

Adjective

bethreatened (not comparable)

1. (obsolete, rare) Threatened by mortal danger.
   • 1635, Francis Quarles, Emblems, divine and moral (1818 reprint, Chiswick Press), book III, emblem 11, page 178

     My plummet’s light, it cannot sink nor sound; // Oh, shall my rock-bethreaten’d soul be drown’d?

References

• “† bethreatened” listed as a derivation of “Be- prefix”, treated on pages 719–723 of volume I (A–B) of A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles [1st ed., 1885]
    Be- prefix: — OE. be-, weak or stressless form of the prep. and adv. bí (biᵹ), By. […] 2. Forming intensive verbs, with sense of ‘thoroughly (extension of 1), soundly, much, conspicuously, to excess, ridiculously.’ […] † bethreatened […] 1635 Quarles Emb. iii. xi, My rock-bethreaten’d soul.