Definitions

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • To intensify the meaning.
  • To render an intransitive verb transitive.
  • To make the action of a verb particular or definite.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • prefix By, near, next to, around, close to.
  • prefix Around; about.
  • prefix About, regarding, concerning, over.
  • prefix On, upon, at, to, in contact with something.
  • prefix Off, away, over, across
  • prefix As an intensifier; i.e. thoroughly, excessively; completely; utterly.
  • prefix All around; about; abundantly; all over.
  • prefix Forming verbs derived from nouns or adjectives, usually with the sense of "to make, become, or cause to be".
  • prefix Used to intensify adjectives meaning "adorned with something" often those with the suffix -ed.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English be-, bi-, from Old English be- ("be-"), from Proto-Germanic *bi- (“be-”), from Proto-Germanic *bi (“near, by”). See by. Cognate with Dutch be- ("be-"), German be- ("be-"), Swedish be- ("be-"). More at by.

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