become 
ter or circumstances ; be worthy of or proper 
to : rarely said of persons. 
If I beconii- not a curt ;is well as another man, a plague 
on my bringing up ! I hope I shall as soon be strangled 
with a halter as another. Shak., 1 Hen. IV., ii. 4. 
Nothing in his life 
Became him like the leaving it. 
filnik., Macbeth, i. 4. 
I don't think so inucli learning lamnrs a young woman. 
Shttidan, The Rivals. i. 2. 
2. To befit in appearance; suit esthetically; 
grace or adorn. 
I have known persons so anxious to have their dress 
become them, as to i-mivert it at length into their proper 
self, and thus actually to beeome the drrss. 
Coleridffe, Aids to Reflection, p. 53. 
[Formerly becomed was sometimes used as the 
past participle. 
A good rebuke, 
Which might have well becom'd the best of men, 
Ti> taunt at slackness. Shak., A. and C., iii. 7.] 
[Irreg. and rare pp. of become.] 
becoinedt, p. a. 
Becoming. 
I met the youthful lord at Laurence' cell, 
And gave him what becoined love I might, 
Not stepping o'er the bounds of modesty. 
Sfutk., R. and J., iv. 2. 
becomenesst, [< become, pp., + -ne^s. Cf. for- 
giveness, similarly formed.] Becomingness. 
becoming (be-kum'ing), p. a. and n. [Ppr. of 
become, r.] 1. p. a, 1. Fit; suitable; congru- 
ous; proper; belonging to the character, or 
adapted to the circumstances : formerly some- 
times followed by of. 
Such [discourses] as are becoming o/them. 
This condescension, my Lord, is not only becoming of 
your ancient family, but of your personal character in 
the world. Dryden, Ded. of Love Triumphant. 
2. Suitable to the appearance or style of; be- 
fitting esthetically : as, a becoming dress. = Syn. 
Meet, appropriate, lilting, seemly, comely, decent. 
II. n. If. Something worn as an ornament. 
Sir, forgive me, 
Since my becomings kill me, when they do not 
Eye well to you. Shalt., A. and C., i. 3. 
2. That which is suitable, fit, or appropriate. 
Burnet, among whose many good qualities self-com- 
mand and a fine sense of the becoming cannot be reckoned. 
Macaulay, Hist. Eng., ix. 
3. ^ametapli., the transition from non-existence 
into existence ; an intermediate state between 
being and not being ; a state of flux ; the state 
of that which begins to be, but does not endure ; 
change ; development : opposed to being. 
becomingly (be-kum'ing-li), adv. After a be- 
coming or proper manner. 
becomingness (be-kum'ing-nes), n. Suitable- 
ness; congruity; propriety; decency; graceful- 
ness arising from fitness: as, "becomingness of 
virtue," Delany, Christmas Sermon. 
becque' (be-ka'), a. [F., < bee (becqu-), beak, + 
-e = E. -erf 2 .] In her., same as beaked. 
becripple (be-krip'l), v. t. [< 6e-l + cripple,'} 
To make lame ; cripple. [Rare.] 
Those whom you bedwarf and becripple by your poison- 
ous medicines. Dr. II. More, Mystery of Godliness, vi. 19. 
becuiba-nut (be-kwe'ba-nut), n. [< becuiba, 
bicuiba, or vicuiba, the native name, + nut.] 
A nut produced by a Brazilian tree, Myriscati 
Jiicuhyba, from which a balsam is drawn that 
is considered of value in rheumatism. 
becuna (be-ku'na), . [ML. becuna, F. becimc; 
origin unknown.] A European fish of the fami- 
ly Sphyrmiida; (Spliyrcena spet), somewhat re- 
Becuna (Spltyrana spet). 
sembling a pike. From its scales and air-bladder is 
obtained a substance useful in the manufacture of artifi- 
cial pearls. The fiesh is well flavored 
becurl (be-kerl'), v. t. [< 6e-l -f curl.'] To fur- 
nish or deck with curls : as, a tlecurled dandy. 
bed 1 (bed), n. [Early mod. E. also bedd, bedde, 
< ME. bed, bedde, < AS. bedd, bed -OS. bed = 
498 
intended for shelter and warmth, (c) The mattress and 
bedclothes together with the bedstead, a permanent struc- 
ture of wood or metal, upon which they are placed, (d) 
The bedstead by itself. 
The chest contrived a double debt to pay, 
A bed by night, a chest of drawers by day. 
Goldsmith, Des. Vil., 1. 230. 
Hence 2. By extension, the resting-place of 
an animal. 3. Any sleeping-place ; a lodging; 
accommodation for the night. 
On my knees I beg 
That you'll vouchsafe me raiment, bed, and food. 
,s'/w*., Lear, ii. 4. 
4. Matrimonial connection; conjugal union; 
matrimonial rights and duties. 
George, the eldest son of his second bed. 
Clarendon, Hist. Ref., I. i. 9. 
5. Offspring; progeny. 6. Anything resem- 
bling, or assumed to resemble, a bed in form 
or position, (a) A plat or piece of ground in a garden 
in which plants, especially flowers, are grown, usually 
raised a little above the adjoining ground. 
Beds of hyacinths and roses. Milton, Comus, 1. 998. 
(Ii) The bottom of a river or other stream, or of any body 
of water. 
A narrow gully, apparently the dry bed of a mountain 
torrent. Irving, Sketch-Book, p. 53. 
(c) A layer ; a stratum ; an extended mass of anything, 
whether upon the earth or within it : as, a bed of sulphur ; a 
bed of sand or clay. In geology a bed is a layer of rock ; a 
portion of a rock-mass which has so much homogeneity, 
and is so separated from the rock which lies over and un- 
mtercalated in a mass of shale ; or there may be several 
beds of marble associated together, each bed being indi- 
vidualized by peculiarities of texture or color. In the 
latter case there would ordinarily be a distinct break or 
solution of continuity between the different beds, so that 
when quarried they would separate from each other with- 
out difficulty along the plane of contact. The Latin word 
stratum is commonly employed in geological writings, and 
is almost the exact equivalent of bed. Bed, as applied to 
mineral deposits, implies ordinarily that the masses of 
ore thus characterized lie flat, and have more or less of 
the character of sedimentary deposits, in distinction from 
on which anything lies, or in which anything 
is embedded. Particularly (a) In building: (1) Either 
of the horizontal surfaces of a building-stone in position. 
The surfaces are distinguished as the upper and the lower 
lied. (2) The under surface of a brick, shingle, slate, or 
tile in position, (fc) In gun., the foundation-piece of a 
gun-carriage. The bed of a mortar is a solid piece of hard 
wood, hollowed out in the middle, to receive the breech 
and half the trunnions, (c) In much., the foundation-piece 
on which the machine is constructed, (d) In a grinding- 
mill, the lower grindstone, (e) In printing, the table of a 
printing-press on which the form of types is laid. It is now 
always of iron, but in old hand-presses it was made of wood 
orstone. (/) In railway-cotvtt ruction, the superficial earth- 
work with the ballasting, (n) Haul., a thick, flat piece 
of wood placed under the quarter of casks in a ship's hold, 
to relieve the bilge or thickest part of the cask from pres- 
sure. (A) The beams or shears which support the puppets 
or stocks of a lathe. (/) In masonry, a layer of cement or 
mortar in which a stone is embedded, or against which it 
bears. (J) In a plane, the inclined face against which the 
plane-iron bears. (fr)The lower die in apunching-machine. 
(I) In ship-building, the cradle of a ship when on the 
stocks, (m) In bookbinding, the couch used in the process 
of marbling the edges of books. It is a water-solution of 
gum tragacanth. 
8. A flock or number of animals, as of wild 
fowl on the water, closely packed together. 
9. A division of the ground in the game of 
hop-scotch, also called locally the game of 
" beds." All beds, in geol., thick fresh-water Tertiary 
strata, occurring near Aix, in Provence, France, consist- 
ing of calcareous marls, calcareo-silicious grits, and gyp- 
sum, and full of fossil fishes, insects, and plants. Apple- 
pie bed. See apple-pie. Bagshot beds, in geol., certain 
beds of Eocene Tertiary age which form outliers near 
London, England, and occupy a considerable area around 
Bagshot in Surrey, and in the New Forest, Hampshire. 
They are chiefly composed of sand, with occasional layers 
of clay, as also of brick-earth and pebbles. The Bagshot 
beds rest upon the London clay. They are usually desti- 
tute of fossils. Also called Bagshot sand. Bala beds 
in geol., certain beds of Lower Silurian age which are par- 
bedag 
thfrium. One layer is composed almost entirely of the re- 
mains of a minute globular species of Paludiim. Brora 
beds, m geot., a series of strata occurring near Brora in 
Sutherlamlshire, Scotland, of the age of the Lower Oolite, 
remarkable for containing a seam of good coal 3J feet 
thick, which is the thickest bed of true coal found in the 
Secondary strata of Great Britain. From bed and board 
a law phrase applied to a separation of man and wife 
without dissolving tin.- bands of matrimony: now called 
a. judicial xi'pnratioii. Canister beds. Bee ponirtar. 
Hydrostatic bed. See water-ted, - Maestricht beds, 
in geol., a member of the Cretaceous, forming the lower 
division of the uppermost subgroup of that series, and 
interesting on account of the fossils it contains. It is 
especially well developed at Maestricht in the Nether- 
lands. These beds contain a mixture of true C'retaeeous 
forms with such as are characteristic of the older Ter- 
tiary. Parade bed, in some ceremonial funerals, par- 
ticularly of great personages, a bed or bier on which a 
corpse or efligy is laid out in state. 
The effigy of the deceased with his hands crossed upon 
a book, lying upon a parade bed, placed on the top of a 
lion-footed sarcophagus. 
C. C. Perkins, Italian Sculpture, p. 120. 
Purbeck beds, in <n-"l., a group of rocks named from the 
Isle of Purbeck, Dorsetshire, England, resting on the Port- 
landian, and forming the highest division of the Jurassic 
series in England. The fossils of the Purbeck are fresh- 
water and brackish, and there are in this formation dirt- 
beds or layers of ancient soil containing stumps of trees 
which grew in them. The same formation is also found in 
the Jura, in the valley of the Doubs. St. Helen's beds. 
Same as Osborne series (which see, under wiV*). To be 
brought to bed, to be confined in child-bed : followed by 
of: as, to be brought to bed of a son. To make a bed, 
to put it in order after it has been used. 
bed 1 (bed), i: ; pret. and pp. bedded, ppr. bed- 
ding. [< ME. bedden, beddien, < AS. beddian 
(OHG. betton = Sw. badda), prepare a bed, < 
bed, a bed.] I. trans. 1. To place in or as in 
a bed. 
My son i' the ooze is bedded. Shak., Tempest, iii. 3. 
2. To go to bed with ; make partaker of one's 
bed. 
They have married me : 
I'll to the Tuscan wars, and never bed her. 
Shale., All's Well, ii. 3. 
3. To provide a bed for; furnish with accom- 
modations for sleeping. 4. To put to bed; 
specifically, to put (a couple) to bed together, 
ing formed out of the head of the stem and the apron 
to support the bowsprit. Bed of justice (F. lit de jus- 
tice), (a) A throne on which the king of France was seated 
when he attended parliament. Hence, (6) a formal visit 
of a king of France to his parliament. These visits had 
several objects, but latterly, when the parliament became 
a power in the state, beds of justice were held 
= Dau. bed = Goth, badi, a bed (the special 
se nse of a plat of ground in a garden occurs in 
AS., MHG., etc., and is the only sense of Dan. 
bed, and of the G. form beet) ; perhaps orig. a 
place dug out, a lair, and thus akin to L. fodi, 
dig: see Joss, fossil, etc.] 1. That upon or 
within which one reposes or sleeps. () A large 
flat bag filled with feathers, down, hair, straw or the like 
a mattress, (b) The mattress together with the coverings 
the king when it showed unwillingness to do so. They 
were also held to try a peer, to create new taxes, to de- 
clare the majority of the king, etc. Bembridge beds, 
in geol., a fossiliferous division of the Upper Eocene 
strata, principally developed in the Isle of Wight, Eng- 
land, consisting of marls and clays, resting on a com- 
pact pale-yellow or cream-colored limestone called Bem- 
bridge limestone. They abound in the shells of Lymnaa 
and Planorbis, and remains of two species of 'Chara 
water-plants; but their most distinctive feature is the 
mammalian remains of the Paheotherium and Anoplo- 
The Dauphin and the Dauphiness were I 
Lorultin Gaz. (16X0), No. 1494. (}f. E. D.) 
5. To make a bed of, or plant in beds, as a 
mass of flowering plants or foliage-plants ; also, 
to transplant into a bed or beds, as from pots 
or a hothouse: often with out. 
Such [cuttings] as are too weak to be put in the nursery 
rows . . . will require to be bedded out ; that is, set 
closely in beds by theniselves, where they can remain for 
one or two years, until they are large and strong enough 
for root grafting or for the nursery rows. 
P. Barry, Fruit Garden, p. 139. 
6. To embed ; fix or set in a permanent posi- 
tion ; furnish with a bed : as, to bed a stone. 
Rites which attest that Man by nature lies 
Bedded for good and evil in a gulf 
Fearfully low. Wordsworth, Excursion, v. 
7. To lay in a stratum ; stratify ; lay in order 
or flat. 
Your bedded hair . . . 
Starts up and stands on end. 
Shale., Hamlet, iii. 4. 
8. To make a bed for, as a horse : commonly 
used with down. 
After bedding down the horse and fastening the barn 
lie returned to the kitchen. 
J. T. Trowbridge, Coupon Bonds, p. 24. 
II. intrans. 1. To go to bed; retire to sleep: 
by extension applied to animals. 2. To co- 
habit ; use the same bed ; sleep together. 
If he be married and bed with his wife. 
Witeman, Surgery. 
They [the wasps] never molested me seriously, though 
they bedded with me. Thoreau, Walden, p. 258. 
3. To rest as in or on a bed : with on. 
The rail, therefore, beds throughout on the ballast. 
lire, Diet., III. 692. 
4. To flock closely together, as wild fowl on 
the surface of the water. 5. To 
the night, as game in cover. 
bed 2 t. An occasional Middle English preterit 
of bid. 
bedabble (be-dab'l), v. t. [< 6e-l + dabble.] To 
dabble with moisture; make wet: as, "brdnb- 
bled with the dew," Shak., M_. N. D., iii. 2. 
minced oath, 
Bedad, she'd come and marry some of 'em. Thackeray. 
bedafft (be-daf), v. t. [ME. bedaffen (pp. by- 
daffed), < be- + daffe, a fool : see be- 1 and daff 1 .] 
To befool; make a fool of. Chaucer, Clerk's 
Tale, Envoye, 1. 15. 
bedaftt (be-daft'), p. a. Stupid; foolish, 
bedagt, v. t. [< ME, bedaggen; < be-i + dag.] 
To bedaggle. 
