Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. Used chiefly in the imperative to express an order of dismissal.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Be gone; go away; depart.
- Past participle of bego.
Wiktionary
- interj. Expressing a desire for someone or something to go away.
- v. Past participle of bego.
GNU Webster's 1913
- interj. Go away; depart; get you gone.
- Surrounded; furnished; beset; environed (as in woe-
begone ).
Etymologies
- Middle English begone : be, imperative of ben, to be; see be + gone, past participle of gon, to go; see go1.
Examples
“-- Our mutual perturbation did not escape the prying witch; my countenance red, hers pale -- The word begone! maddened to break loose from my impatient tongue.”
“I don't like to 'begone' -- I refuse to git when I'm told, so, of course, I paid my respects to Natalie and her mother.”
““Think not I meant to implore permission to reside here; it has been long my determination to leave Avenel, and I will never forgive myself for having permitted you to say the word begone, ere I said, ‘I leave you.’”
“It begins by bidding "loathed Melancholy" begone "'Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights unholy," and by bidding come”
“Men would have dragged Bryde off, but he hissed a "begone" through clenched teeth”
“If this spectral company becomes too much for me I must loudly command them, even shout at them, "begone," and if that does no good I must wish for a whip - which forthwith appears - and give them a sound thrashing.”
“Those who expected to find him maudlin, helpless, disconsolate, shrank from the cold, hard eyes and truculent voice that bade them "begone," and "leave him with his dead.”
“Thinking it her favorite Carlo, and being in no mood for a frolic, without lifting her eyes she bid him "begone;" but she was soon undeceived by a shrill voice pronouncing her name, at the same time finding her arm tightly grasped by the thin, bony fingers of Crazy Nell, the terror of all the truant children in the village.”
“But the people would have no dealings with us, and two sworded officials, in sweeping robes of silk that made Captain Johannes Maartens 'mouth water, came aboard of us and politely requested us to begone.”
“It stood crouched, with tail between its legs, like a miserable and woe-begone dog.”
Lists
‘begone’ hasn't been added to any lists yet.
hernesheir Decayed, worn.
The thatch of this house is lamentably begone. - Grose's A Provincial Glossary, 1787. May 4, 2011