beset

From Middle English besetten, bisetten, from Old English besettan (“to beset; set beside; set near”), from Proto-West Germanic *bisattjan, from Proto-Germanic *bisatjaną (“to set near; set around”), equivalent to be- +‎ set.

Cognate with Saterland Frisian besätte (“to occupy”), West Frisian besette (“to occupy”), Dutch bezetten (“to sit in; occupy; fill”), German Low German besetten (“to occupy”), German besetzen (“to seize; occupy; garrison”), Danish besætte (“to occupy; obsess”), Swedish besätta (“to fill; occupy; beset”).

• IPA^(key): /bɪˈsɛt/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• Audio (General American):

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• Rhymes: -ɛt

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

1. (transitive) To surround or hem in.

   Synonyms: bebay, beleaguer, besiege, encircle, environ, inbind

   • 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; […]

2. (transitive, sometimes figurative) To attack or assail, especially from all sides.

   Synonyms: beleaguer, besiege, environ, harry, pursue; 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 […]

   • 2006, Pip Wilson, Faces in the Street: Louisa and Henry Lawson and the Castlereagh Street Push, 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 The Daily Telegraph (London):

     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”, in RAIL, number 936, 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^[1], →ISSN, archived from the original on 25 June 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.

3. (transitive) To decorate something with jewels etc.

   Synonyms: bedazzle, bejewel, bespangle

   • 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.

4. (nautical) Of a ship, to get trapped by ice.

• “beset”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

• Beets, Beste, beest, beets, tsebe

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

• IPA^(key): /bəˈsɛt/
• Rhymes: -ɛt

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

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

• besetting