Meanings
present singular third person behangs · participle present behanging · participle past behung · past behung
- transitiveTo hang round or about, as ornament or embellishment; suspend; drape.
And with rich clusters (hid among / The leaves) her temples I behung: […]
1890, Robert Herrick, William Carew Hazlitt, Hesperides2 more examples
Now seven times had frosty-bearded Winter covered both herbs and flowers with snow, and behung the trees with crystal icicles, since the unfortunate St. George beheld the cheerful light of heaven, but lived obscure in a dismal dungeon, […]
1824, Richard Johnson, The renowned history of the seven champions of ChristendomMoreover, when they have introduced the bride, they spread a fleece under her; and she, having brought in with her a distaff and a spindle, all behangs her husband's door with woollen yarn?
1874, Plutarch, John Dryden, Arthur Hugh Clough, Plutarch's lives
Origin
- Old Englishbehōn“to hang round”
- Middle English*behangen
- Englishbehang
From Middle English *behangen, behongen, bihangien, bihengen, from Old English behōn (“to hang round”), equivalent to be- + hang. Cognate with Dutch behangen (“to decorate”), German behängen (“to hang, drape, decorate”).
More words from Middle English, Old English
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
behang. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/behang
“behang.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/behang. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “behang,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/behang.
Source: behang on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.