betrim

present singular third person betrims · participle present betrimming · participle past betrimmed · past betrimmed

1. datedtransitiveTo trim (“decorate”); to adorn, deck, or embellish.

   I could not half the Pageant Ills o'ercall, / That garniſh and betrim the gloomy Wall.

   [1715], Lew[is] Theobald, The Cave of Poverty, a Poem. […], London: […] Jonas Browne […], and sold by J. Roberts […], →OCLC, stanza XXVI, page 11

   5 more examples

   Thy bankes with pioned, and twilled brims / Which ſpungie Aprill, at thy heſt betrims; / To make cold Nymphes chaſt crownes; […]

   1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 14, column 2

   [S]ome folke perhaps according to the forme by your ſelves preſcribed, doe ſometimes betrim you with ſuch ſtrange Titles, but are you ſo ſimple as to conceit that wiſe men do fancy them to belong unto you?

   1648, Edw[ard] Symmons, “Sect. XXVIII. A Faithful and Ministeriall Admonition, to the Troubles of Our Israel: […]”, in A Vindication of King Charles: Or, A Loyal Subject’s Duty. […], [London?]: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 280

   But when in honour'd Robes I ſee it put, / Betrim'd as if ſome thing of Worth it were, / Look big, and on the Stilts of Greatneſs ſtrut; / From ſcorning it I cannot then forbear.

   1684, R[ichard] B[urton] [pseudonym; Nathaniel Crouch], “The Eighth Emblem Illustrated”, in Choice Emblems, Divine and Moral, Antient and Modern: Or, Delights for the Ingenious, in above Fifty Select Emblems, […], London: […] Edmund Parker, […], published 1729, →OCLC, page 32

   Mark! thoſe diſgraceful Piles of Wood and Stone; / Thoſe Parks and Gardens, where, his Haunts be-trimm'd, / And Nature by preſumptuous Art oppreſs'd, / The woodland Genius mourns.

   1736, [James] Thomson, The Prospect: Being the Fifth Part of Liberty. A Poem, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, page 13, lines 163–165

   Fair, fickle month, now peevish as a child / That frets in middle of the Pleasures' bowers; / Now winsome as a bride betrimmed with flowers, / Laughing like wit when exquisitely wild,— […]

   1840 April, “April. A Sonnet.”, in William E[vans] Burton, editor, Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine, and American Monthly Review, volume VI, Philadelphia, Pa.: William E. Burton, […], →OCLC, page 160, column 1

   Synonyms: bedeck, adore, adorn, apparel, array, invest, detail, beautify