Definitions

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

  • transitive verb To wet with or as if with dew.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To moisten with or as with dew; moisten in a gentle manner with any liquid.

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

  • transitive verb To moisten with dew, or as with dew.

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

  • verb transitive To make wet with or as if with dew.

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

  • verb cover with drops of dew or as with dew

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English bidewen, bideawen, equivalent to be- +‎ dew. Cognate with Dutch bedauwen ("to bedew"), German betauen ("to bedew").

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Examples

  • Flora, seeming to give her Benediction, having a large Nosegay in her Hand, from whence spouts forth small Streams of Water, as if she meant therewith to bedew the whole Garden.

    Exilius 2008

  • But as yet the water of Castaly is waiting for me to bedew the maiden glory of my tresses for the service of Phoebus.

    The Phoenissae 2008

  • But as yet the water of Castaly is waiting for me to bedew the maiden glory of my tresses for the service of Phoebus.

    The Phoenissae 2008

  • But if (to borrow language from the mint of Gorgias86), if only the attendants will bedew us with a frequent mizzle87 of small glasses, we shall not be violently driven on by wine to drunkenness, but with sweet seduction reach the goal of sportive levity.

    Symposium 2007

  • Neuer, a tender lambe shall want, with blood to bedew them.

    Poems and Fragments 2006

  • I do assure you, that as soon as I saw you change, and a cold sweat bedew your pretty face, and you fainted away, I quitted the bed, and Mrs. Jewkes did so too.

    Pamela 2006

  • Tears bathe his cheek, and tears the ground bedew:

    The Odyssey of Homer 2003

  • Tears bathe his cheeks, and tears the ground bedew

    The Odyssey of Homer 2003

  • Tears bathe their arms, and tears the sands bedew.

    The Iliad of Homer 2003

  • I play the child, and weep at the recollection — for the grief is still fresh that stunned as well as wounded me — yet never did drops of anguish like these bedew the cheeks of infantine innocence — and why should they mine, that never was stained by a blush of guilt?

    Letters written during a short residence in Sweden, Norway and Denmark 2003

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