behight

B3E1H4I1G2H4T1

verb

To vow, promise (someone).

“Wheea behight thee? = What is your name/to whom do you belong?”

OriginMiddle English beheten ← Old English behātan →
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Meanings

verbbehight (third-person singular simple present behights, present participle behighting, simple past and past participle behight or behighted)

present singular third person behights · participle present behighting · participle past behighted · past behighted · alternative behote

  1. obsoletetransitiveTo vow, promise (someone).

    Thenne I behote yow sayd Balyn parte of his blood to hele youre sone with alle.

    1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book II
  2. Northern EnglanddialectalTo be designated.

    Wheea behight thee? = What is your name/to whom do you belong?

  3. obsoletetransitiveTo give in trust; to commit; to entrust.

    The keys are to thy hand behight.

    1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 50
  4. obsoleteTo mean, or intend.

    More than heart behighteth.

    1559, unknown author, Mirror for Magistrates
  5. obsoleteTo consider or esteem to be; to declare to be.

    But nathelesse whilst all the lookers on / Him dead behight, as he to all appeard, / All vnawares he started vp anon,

    1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 31
  6. obsoleteTo call; to name; to address.

    Whom […] he knew and thus behight.

    1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 25
  7. obsoleteTo command; to order.

    And his well proued weapons to him hent; / So taking courteous conge he behight, / Those gates to be vnbar'd, and forth he went.

    1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 17
nounbehight (plural behights)

plural behights · alternative behote

  1. obsoleteA vow; a promise.

Origin

  1. Old Englishbehātan“to promise, vow, pledge oneself, threaten”
  2. Middle Englishbeheten
  3. Englishbehight

From Middle English beheten, bihaten, behoten (preterite behighte), from Old English behātan (“to promise, vow, pledge oneself, threaten”) (preterite behēhte), corresponding to be- + hight. Cognate with Scots beheit, behecht (“to promise, vow”), Middle High German beheizen (“to promise”).

More words from Middle English, Old English

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

behight. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/behight

MLA

“behight.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/behight. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “behight,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/behight.

Source: behight on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.