Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An obsolete form of beaver.
  • noun An obsolete form of beaver.
  • noun A collation or slight repast between meals.
  • noun Formerly, at some colleges and schools, a slight meal which the students received at the buttery-hatch and took to their rooms.
  • To take a bever or slight repast between meals.

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

  • noun obsolete A light repast between meals; a lunch.
  • intransitive verb obsolete To take a light repast between meals.

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

  • verb intransitive To tremble; shake; quiver; shiver.
  • noun A drink.
  • noun archaic A snack or light refreshment between meals.
  • verb obsolete To take a light repast between meals.
  • noun A movable covering for the mouth and chin on a close helmet.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English beveren ("to tremble"), frequentative form of Old English beofian, bifian ("to tremble, be moved, shake, quake"), from Proto-Germanic *bibōnan, *bibēnan (“to quake, shiver”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰoyǝ- (“to frighten, be afraid”). Cognate with Eastern Frisian bevern ("to shiver"), Dutch bibberen ("to shiver, quiver"), Low German beveren ("to shiver"), Dutch beven ("to quake"), German beben ("to quake, tremble"), Swedish bäva ("to quake, tremble"), Icelandic bifa ("to budge, be moved"), Latin foedus ("disgusting, shocking, abominable, heinous").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French baviere ("child's bib"), from baver ("to slaver").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Anglo-Norman bever, from Old French beivre ("drinking, drink, to drink") (French boire), from Latin bibō.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word bever.

Examples

  • "bever," being passed in two two-quart tankards from hand to hand down the commons table.

    Customs and Fashions in Old New England Alice Morse Earle 1881

  • Cheney, more devastating than any WMD could bever be!

    First on the CNN Ticker: DNC takes aim at Cheney 2009

  • December 20th, 2008 at 2: 01 pm indeed. an overwrought review of a sonic youth album for Ego Trip was the crowing achievement of my fleeting career in music criticism. noah callahan-bever – mid 90s berkeley carroll school represent!

    Ego Trip | ATTACKERMAN 2008

  • Particularly pernicious examples of packaging are the flimsy plastic bags given out by stores in which to carry Stuff home, and single-serving bever age containers.

    THE STORY OF STUFF Annie Leonard 2010

  • I've also heard of a place you can send your hides to that will make deerskin gloves -- and there's another place that will make a hat from a bever pelt!

    Adventures in Taxidermy 2008

  • Particularly pernicious examples of packaging are the flimsy plastic bags given out by stores in which to carry Stuff home, and single-serving bever age containers.

    THE STORY OF STUFF Annie Leonard 2010

  • Particularly pernicious examples of packaging are the flimsy plastic bags given out by stores in which to carry Stuff home, and single-serving bever age containers.

    THE STORY OF STUFF Annie Leonard 2010

  • Particularly pernicious examples of packaging are the flimsy plastic bags given out by stores in which to carry Stuff home, and single-serving bever age containers.

    THE STORY OF STUFF Annie Leonard 2010

  • Keep doing this process until that is there is no longer an Iran, or else they get the message and no that they'll bever be allowed Nukes to, of course, bomb Israel.

    John Terry’s sacking as England captain tells us something interesting... 2009

  • Of course, there is that "bever fever", but I can still see it being handy for that.

    Technological Independence, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • A between-meal snack.

    May 20, 2008