berne, a herb; ‘The iuyce of Berne or wylde Cresseys’, Turbervile, Hunting, c. 8; p. 21. F. berle, Med. L. berula, the water-pimpernel, see Gerarde, p. 621. See Prompt. EETS. (s.v. Bellerne, note no. 176).
†berry, an error for bevy, i.e. a number; ‘A berry of fair roses’, Two Angry Women, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 322. Cp. ‘A Beuy of Roos’, Book of St. Albans, fol. f 6.
beryels, a tomb. Morte Arthur, leaf 141, back, 7; bk. viii. c. 6 (end); spelt buryels, id. leaf 233, back, 23; bk. x. c. 32. OE. byrgels. See Dict. (s.v. Burial).
besant, besaunte, a gold coin of Byzantium. Morte Arthur, leaf 78. 15; bk. iv. c. 26. It varied in value from half a sovereign to a sovereign. See Dict.
bescumber, to befoul. Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. ix. 34; B. Jonson, Poetaster, v. 1. (Tibullus); Staple of News, v. 2; Comical History of Francion (Nares); spelt bescummer, Beaumont and Fl., Fair Maid of the Inn, iv. The word bescummer, to besmear with dirt, fig. to abuse, calumniate, is in obsolescent use in Somerset and Devon (EDD.). See [scumber].
beseen: in phr. well beseen; spelt well bisene, Morte Arthur, leaf 22, back, 32; bk. i. c. 8; well beseene, well furnished, Spenser, Tears of the Muses, 180; ‘I am besene, I am well or yvell apareyled’, Palsgrave.
besgue, stammering. Caxton, Hist. Troye, leaf 271. 5. OF. besgue (F. bègue).
besides himself, all by himself, alone. Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, i. 1 (Violetta).
besit, to suit, befit. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 10; besitting, befitting, id. iv. 2. 19; ‘It well besits’, Holland, Plutarch’s Morals, 227. Cp. use of F. seoir, to sit, also, to fit, suit, sit properly on (Hatzfeld).
beslurry, to sully all over; ‘All beslurried’, Drayton, Nymphidia, st. 32. Prov. E. slurry, to soil, bedaub (EDD).