beknow

present singular third person beknows · participle present beknowing · past beknew · participle past beknown

1. transitiveTo know about; have knowledge of; recognise; understand; be aware (of); be knowledgeable about.

   At length Alkimedon, his friend and comrade, right beknew it; [...]

   1856, Homer, Francis William Newman, The Iliad of Homer

   3 more examples

   Do not think my reverend father that I am beknowing to all the affairs of the savages, there is a great deal wanting: they come to us about the affairs of their conscience, but as to the rest they consult us but little.

   1859, United States Congress, Congressional edition - Page 354

   [...] when I went bolt into his dressing-room, not beknowing he was in it — why it is not likely, sir, that he comes again.

   1888, The Argosy, volume 46

   Know I as soon as dark's dreams begin Snared is my heart in a nightmare's gin; Never from terror I out may win; So dawn and dusk I pine, peak, thin, Scarcely beknowing t'other from which—My great grandam—She was a Witch.

   1922, Walter De la Mare, Down-adown-derry: a book of fairy poems

2. transitiveTo acknowledge; own; confess.

   For vnto the no nombre can be layd for to preſcrybe remiſſions off offence In hertes retornd, as thow thy ſellff haſt ſayd. And I, beknow my Fawt my neclegence [...]

   c. 1527–1542, Thomas Wyatt, “Penitential Psalms”, in Egerton MS 2711, page 93r