behave

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“
I think, though, that she would expect a person to behave--behave in her way, I mean Judas!

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Definitions (17)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (5)

  1. intransitive verb To conduct oneself in a specified way: The child behaved badly at the party.
  2. intransitive verb To conduct oneself in a proper way: I told the child to behave.
  3. intransitive verb To act, react, function, or perform in a particular way: This fabric behaves well even in hot weather.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (7)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples (50)

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This word has been looked up 167 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same contextWord Family

behave:   behaved ·  behaving ·  behaves
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English behaven : be-, be- + haven, to have; see have.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from late Middle English behaven, restrain, reflexive behave (see first quot.), from be- + have (which thus compounded took the full inflections (preterit rarely behad and irreg. beheft) and developed reg. into the modern pron. hāv). The word is formally identical with Anglo-Saxon behabban, hold, surround, restrain (= Old Saxon bihebbian, hold, surround, = Old High German bihabēn, Middle High German behaben, hold, take possession of), from be, about, + habban, have, hold: see be- and have.
 

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/bəˈheɪv/
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