Meanings
present singular third person besails · participle present besailing · participle past besailed · past besailed
- archaicpoeticraretransitiveTo attack or assail; lunge at or toward; assault.
He remembered a vision which once besailed him suddenly.
2015, Jennifer Armstrong, Killing Substance3 more examples
The civvies and the brakesmen, with clubs they did me besail; They marched me right straight over to the Albany Jail […]
1960, New York Folklore Quarterly, volume 16, page 100The narrow besailed giants stood with long limbs rooted deep in the surface. Every so often a leg would ponderously rise and anchor itself elsewhere, as a sifter repositioned itself with the changing wind.
2013, A J Dalton, Gateway of the SavioursNo mater what besails us, no matter how much pain, loss or sorrow we endure, something deep within us rises to the occasion, in fusing us with Strength and Courage to get beyond what ever this world of earthly existence throws in our unknowing paths […]
2014, Dr. Adrianna Scheibner, Beyond Good and Evil..... Is Paradise
Origin
- Middle Englishsailen“to attack”
- Englishbesail
From be- (“at, toward”) + sail (“to attack, assail”), from Middle English sailen (“to attack”), short for assailen (“to assail”).
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
besail. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/besail
“besail.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/besail. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “besail,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/besail.
Source: besail on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.