behappen

present singular third person behappens · participle present behappening · participle past behappened · past behappened

1. obsoletetransitiveTo happen to, to befall.

   "But why have ye," said Artegall, "forborne Your owne good shield in daungerous dismay? That is the greatest shame and foulest scorne, Which unto any knight behappen may. To loose the badge that should his deedes display."

   1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene Book V LII

   1 more example

   And where now might Timothy Tipkin sifflicate that it may behappen to be for to come from? Pummel thy pumkin, and a tell me that, Peter Grievous. Where, but out of my pouche, Gaby? That is, I first havin and holdin the wherewithalls, and the whys, and the wherefores. Do you take me now? So that forsooth, some folks may behappen to cry peccavi.

   1792, Thomas Holcroft, Anna St. Ives. a Novel

1. dialectalnot comparableobsoletePerhaps, mayhap.

   Behappen it ul rain.

   1841, Charles Henry Hartshorne, Salopia Antiqua: Or, An Enquiry from Personal Survey Into the 'druidical,' Military, and Other Early Remains in Shropshire and the North Welsh Borders; with Observations Upon the Names of Places, and a Glossary of Words Used in the County of Salop