bewed

From Middle English biwedden, from Old English beweddian (“to betroth, marry, give security”), from Proto-West Germanic *biwaddjōn, equivalent to be- +‎ wed. Cognate with Old Frisian biweddia.

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /biˈwɛd/, /bɪˈwɛd/, /bəˈwɛd/

bewed (third-person singular simple present beweds, present participle bewedding, simple past and past participle bewed or bewedded)

1. (transitive) To pledge oneself to; betroth; wed; marry.
   • 1898, Sir James H[enry] Ramsay of Bamff, [10th] Bar[one]t, “Eadward the Confessor (continued): a.d. 1051–1053”, in The Foundations of England: or Twelve Centuries of British History (b.c. 55–a.d. 1154), London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co Ltd, →OCLC, pages 461–462:

     In the simple words of the Worcester chronicler, ‘That would any man that on England was have thought wonderlike if any man ere said that it so should happen. For that he (Godwine) was theretofore so upheaven, as if he wielded of the King [Eadward] and all England; and his sons were earls and the King’s darlings (!), and his daughter [Edith of Wessex] to the King bewedded and bewifed.’

     [original: Þæt wolde ðyncan wundorlic ælcum men þe on Englalande wæs, gif ænig man ær þam sæde þæt hit swa gewurþan sceolde, for ðam þe he wæs ær to þam swyðe up ahafen swylce he weolde þæs cynges ⁊ ealles Englalandes, ⁊ his sunan wæron eorlas, ⁊ þæs cynges dyrlingas, ⁊ his dohtor þæm cynge beweddod ⁊ beæwnod.]

   • 1964, AESCHYLUS PROMETHEUS BOUND:

     […] You venerable Fates, a vision to see:
     Approaching the bride-room of Zeus,
     Or ever bewedded to bridegroom from heaven.

   • 2003, Roberto Strongman, Allegorical I/lands:

     As his widowed mother remarries a Moor herself, she metaphorically beweds her husband's killer, leaving Lazarillo in Oedipal anxiety.

2. (transitive) To unite closely and intimately; join.

• (to wed): see also Thesaurus:marry
• (to unite closely and intimately): attach, put together, unite; see also Thesaurus:join

• bewedded
• bewedding

• self-bewedding

• bedew, dweeb