Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To cause to become active; rouse.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To put into brisk or vigorous action; reflexively, move with life and vigor: as, bestir yourself.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To put into brisk or vigorous action; to move with life and vigor; -- usually with the reciprocal pronoun.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To put into brisk or vigorous action; to move with life and vigor.
  • verb intransitive To become active; to rouse oneself.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb become active

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English bistiren : probably bi-, be- + stiren, to rouse; see stir.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English bestyrien, bestirien, from Old English bestyrian ("to heap up, pile up"), equivalent to be- +‎ stir.

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