Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To ornament or dress in a showy or gaudy manner.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To deck or dress out, especially in a tawdry manner or with vulgar finery.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To dress or adorn tawdrily or with false taste.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive To
ornament something inshowy ,tasteless , orgaudy finery . - verb transitive, Northern England To
dirty ;cover withdirt . - noun colloquial A person who spends most of their time in bed; a
slugabed .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb decorate tastelessly
- verb dress up garishly and tastelessly
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Thou art in mourning now, as well as I: but if ever thy ridiculous turn lead thee again to be beau-brocade, I will bedizen thee, as the girls say, on my return, to my own fancy, and according to thy own natural appearance — Thou shalt doctor my soul, and I will doctor thy body: thou shalt see what a clever fellow I will make of thee.
Clarissa Harlowe 2006
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We, whose fathers at least were Christians, who have grown up under those mediaeval arches even if we bedizen them with all the demons in
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We, whose fathers at least were Christians, who have grown up under those mediaeval arches even if we bedizen them with all the demons in
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Prithee, young one, who art thou, and what has ailed thy mother to bedizen thee in this strange fashion?
The Scarlet Letter 2002
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I wasn't sure quite why I had resisted the array of baubles with which she had tried to further bedizen me; perhaps it was mere dislike of fussiness.
Drums of Autumn Gabaldon, Diana 1997
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And Lily went up to her dressing-room; she wanted to look her best, to bedizen herself ... a little red on her lips, a little blue on her eyelids
The Bill-Toppers J. Andr�� Castaigne
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It was the aid of Russia which enabled her to overthrow the great Napoleon, and now she permits the little Napoleon to bully her into a war with Russia that he may bedizen his name with the glory of a conflict with the conqueror of his illustrious kinsman.
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 1, January, 1864 Various
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He deplores himself, he distrusts himself, he plainly wishes heartily that he was not himself, but he never makes the slightest attempt to disguise and bedizen himself.
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I will so bedizen your virile, though somewhat crassly practical gifts ---- Why, women are my long suit.
Free Air Sinclair Lewis 1918
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Thus a Frenchman, viewing the undraped statues which bedizen his native galleries of art, either enjoys them in a purely aesthetic fashion -- which is seldom possible save when he is in liquor -- or confesses frankly that he doesn't like them at all; whereas the visiting Americano is so powerfully shocked and fascinated by them that one finds him, the same evening, in places where no respectable man ought to go.
acediscovery commented on the word bedizen
to dress or adorn in a gaudy manner
November 28, 2008
Arthurpod commented on the word bedizen
"the tree shade bedizened with glints of declining sunlight.."
Lord Foul's Bane
July 29, 2012
voxel-ux commented on the word bedizen
This is a lovely word and sounds just like its definition: rather OTT.
October 13, 2014
slumry commented on the word bedizen
according to etymonline, bedizen dates to the 1660s and is derived from be + dizen, "to dress"
September 6, 2015