Bestow

/bɪˈstəʊ/ · verb

Meaning

To apply or make use of (someone or something); to employ, to use..

Definitions by Sense

1. To apply or make use of (someone or something); to employ, to use.
2. To impart (something) gratuitously; to present (something) to someone or something, especially as a gift or an honour; to confer, to give, to accord; to render.
3. To place or put (someone or something) somewhere or in a certain situation; to dispose of.
4. To deposit (something) for safekeeping; to lay up (something) in store; to stow.
5. To provide (someone or oneself) with accommodation; to find quarters for (someone or oneself); to lodge, to quarter.
6. To behave or conduct (oneself); to acquit.
7. To give (someone or oneself) in marriage.
8. (obsolete, rare) An act of presenting a thing to someone or something, especially as a gift or an honour; a bestowal.

Example Sentences

All the voide time, that is betwene the huores of woorke ſlepe and meat, that they be ſuffered to beſtowe, euerye man as he lyketh beſte hym ſelfe.

[S]ince the voyce / Of moſt ſupreme Authority commands / My abſence: I determine to beſtovv / Some time in learning Languages abroad; […]

Richmond, thy purling ſtreams and pleaſing ſhades, / Might claim the chorus of Aonian maids; / VVhere e’en Apollo might his hours beſtovv, / By turns employ his lyre, by turns his bovv, / VVhere all the pleaſures dvvell, vvhich poets feign / On fair Arcadia’s fields or Tempe’s plain.

I bestow upon you the name of Peter.

Medals were bestowed on the winning team.

For yͤ vngodly Athalia & hir ſonnes haue waiſted the houſe of God: and all that was halowed for the houſe of the LORDE, haue they beſtowed on Baalim.

Harke yee Lords, you ſee I haue giuen her Phiſicke, / And you muſt needs beſtovv her Funerall, […]

[H]e [Moses] beſtovveth on the ſtory of Abraham fourteene chapters, beginning vvith his birth in the eleuenth, and ending vvith his death in the fiue and tvventieth; and this time endured but 175. yeares.

Synonyms for bestow

Antonyms for bestow

Related Words

Word Forms

• bestows
• bestowing
• bestowed
• no-table-tags
• glossary
• bestow
• bestowest
• bestowedst
• bestoweth
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Usage Notes

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