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beset

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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WOTD – 24 February 2026

Etymology

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From Middle English besetten, bisetten (“to besiege, blockade; to fill, occupy; to harass, beset; to allot, bestow; to arrange, manage; to place, set; to provide for; to treat in a certain way”),[1] from Old English besettan, bisettan (“to surround, beset; to set near; etc.”),[2] from Proto-West Germanic *bisattjan, from Proto-Germanic *bisatjaną (“to fill, occupy”), from *bi- (prefix meaning ‘at; by’) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁epi (“at; near; on”)) + *satjaną (“to place down, set”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sed- (“to sit”)).[3] By surface analysis, be- (prefix meaning ‘around; by, close to, near, next to’) +‎ set.

cognates

Pronunciation

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Verb

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beset (third-person singular simple present besets, present participle besetting, simple past and past participle beset)

  1. (transitive) Senses relating to surrounding.
    1. To assail or attack (someone) from all sides; to set about.
      Synonyms: beleaguer; see also Thesaurus:pester
      • 1654, Edmund Gayton, Festivous notes on the history and adventures of the renowned Don Quixote:
        He that hath read Seneca or Boethius, is well provided against any ordinary misfortune; and to have by heart the story of Argalus and Parthenia; the dolorous madrigals of old Plangus in the Arcadia; or the history of Pyramus and Thisbe, is a never failing remedy for the mubble-fubbles: For to be acquainted with sadness, besets familiarity, and familiars never kill one another, unless the devil is in them.
      • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:
        “Nay, for matter o’ that, he never doth any mischief,” said the woman; “but to be sure it is necessary he should keep some arms for his own safety; for his house hath been beset more than once; and it is not many nights ago that we thought we heard thieves about it […]
      • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Sperm Whale’s Head”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 369:
        It may be but an idle whim, but it has always seemed to me, that the extraordinary vacillations of movement displayed by some whales when beset by three or four boats; the timidity and liability to queer frights, so common to such whales; I think that all this indirectly proceeds from the helpless perplexity of volition, in which their divided and diametrically opposite powers of vision must involve them.
    2. To occupy and block (an entrance, a passage, etc.), especially to prevent people from passing.
    3. (chiefly passive voice) To decorate (someone or something) by surrounding with accessories, etc.
      Synonyms: bedazzle, bejewel, bespangle
    4. (archaic) Followed by with: to encircle or surround (someone or something); to hem in.
      Synonyms: (rare) bebay, environ, inbind, (Scotland, obsolete) umbeset
      • a. 1587 (date written), Philip Sidney, “Psalm XXIII. Dominus regit me.”, in The Psalmes of David […], London: From the Chiswick Press by C[harles] Whittingham, for Robert Triphook, […], published 1823, →OCLC, page 37:
        For thou, deere Lord, thou me besett'st; / Thy rodd and thy staff be / To comfort me: […]
      • 1648, Zachary Boyd, “Psal[m] CXXXIX. [Verse 5.]”, in The Psalmes of David in Meeter: With the Prose Interlined, Glasgow: […] [T]he heires of George Anderson, →OCLC, signature Y2, recto:
        Thou me beſetſt behind, before, / and laidſt thine hand on me, / Such knovvledge is for me too ſtrange, / it to attain's[sic – meaning attainest] too hie [high].
      • 1928, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter X, in Lady Chatterley’s Lover, [Germany?]: Privately printed, →OCLC, page 151:
        It was a handsome old stucco hall, very elegantly appointed, for Winter was a bachelor and prided himself on his style; but the place was beset by collieries.
      • 1985, Charles L. Scott, The Genus Haworthia (Liliaceae): A Taxonomic Revision, page 80:
        Vegetatively it is the nearest to H. translucens with its oblong-lanceolate leaves, with the margins and keel beset with pellucid teeth, but it differs and is characterised by the greyish-black quadrantly positioned globose flowers; […]
      1. (nautical, chiefly passive voice) To trap (a ship) within frozen sea; to ice in.
    5. (figurative) Of dangers, difficulties, enemies, etc.: to negatively affect (someone or something); to trouble.
      • 2006, Pip Wilson, “If Blood should Stain the Wattle”, in Faces in the Street: Louisa and Henry Lawson and the Castlereagh Street Push, 3rd edition, Coffs Harbour, N.S.W.: [Pip Wilson], published January 2007, →ISBN, page 147:
        Fred Brentnall, in his squeaky lorikeet voice reads to the House Lawson's last two stanzas, just to highlight the danger besetting the colony of Queensland, indeed, the whole country: […]
      • 2016 February 23, Robbie Collin, “Grimsby review: ‘Sacha Baron Cohen’s vital, venomous action movie’”, in Chris Evans, editor, The Daily Telegraph‎[1], London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 17 November 2019:
        Some of Grimsby's other (extraordinarily up-to-date) targets include Donald Trump and Daniel Radcliffe, whose fates here are too breath-catchingly cruel to spoil, and also the admirably game Strong, whose character is beset by a constant stream of humiliations that hit with the force of a jet of … well, you'll see.
      • 2021 July 28, Paul Clifton, “£67 million Isle of Wight Line Extension Submitted to DfT [Department for Transport]”, in Rail, number 936, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 21:
        Track and platforms have been upgraded, but refurbished trains from Vivarail have been beset by software problems.
      • 2025 June 25, Ismail Muhammad, “Why Does Every Commercial for A.I. Think You’re a Moron?”, in The New York Times Magazine‎[2], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 1 October 2025:
        In commercial after commercial, humans are oblivious, enfeebled, barely functioning idiots beset by more tasks, stimuli and demands on their time than anyone could reasonably handle.
    6. (often military, archaic) Of soldiers, etc.: to surround (a place) to compel surrender; to besiege.
    7. (obsolete) To capture (an animal); to ensnare, to entrap.
  2. (transitive, obsolete) Senses relating to placing or setting.
    1. To arrange or set (something) in order.
    2. To give (something); to bestow, to present.
    3. To spend or use (something, such as effort, money, time, or words).
    4. Followed by on or upon: to place or set (love, trust, etc.) on someone.
  3. (obsolete) Senses relating to being appropriate.
    1. (transitive) To be appropriate or fitting for (something); to become, to befit.
    2. (intransitive) Followed by with: to accord or go well with something.

Conjugation

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Conjugation of beset
infinitive (to) beset
present tense past tense
1st-person singular beset beset
2nd-person singular beset, besettest† beset, besetst†
3rd-person singular besets, besetteth† beset
plural beset
subjunctive beset beset
imperative beset —
participles besetting beset

† Archaic or obsolete.

Antonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

References

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  1. ^ “bisetten, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ Joseph Bosworth (1882), “bi-settan”, in T[homas] Northcote Toller, editor, An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 104, column 2.
  3. ^ “beset, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2025; “beset, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

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Afrikaans

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Etymology

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From Dutch bezetten, from Middle Dutch besetten, from Old Dutch *bisetten, from Proto-Germanic *bisatjaną.

Pronunciation

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Verb

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beset (present beset, present participle besettende, past participle beset)

  1. (transitive) to occupy, to fill
  2. (transitive, military) to occupy militarily

Derived terms

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