betime

present singular third person betimes · participle present betiming · participle past betimed · past betimed

1. archaicintransitiveTo occur; betide.

   Away, away, no time ſhalbe omitted, / That will be time and may by vs be fitted.

   c. 1595–1596 (date written), W. Shakespere [i.e., William Shakespeare], A Pleasant Conceited Comedie Called, Loues Labors Lost. […] (First Quarto), London: […] W[illiam] W[hite] for Cut[h]bert Burby, published 1598, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]

   Synonyms: come to pass, transpire

1. not comparableBetimes.

   Send succours (lords), and stop the rage betime, Before the wound do grow uncurable; For being green, there is great hope of help."

   1868, Mary Frances Cusack, An Illustrated History of Ireland from AD 400 to 1800

   1 more example

   Her feature all as fresh aboue, As is the grasse that grows by Doue, as lyth as lasse of Kent: Her skin as soft as Lemster wooll, As white as snow on peakish hull, or Swanne that swims in Trent. 30 This mayden in a morne betime, Went forth when May was in her prime, to get sweet Cetywall, The hony-suckle, the Harlocke, The Lilly and the Lady-smocke, to decke her summer hall.

   1907, Michael Drayton, Minor Poems of Michael Drayton