Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To cause to become active; rouse: finally bestirred himself to look for work.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To put into brisk or vigorous action; reflexively, move with life and vigor: as, bestir yourself.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive To put into brisk or vigorous action; to move with life and vigor.
- v. intransitive To become active; to rouse oneself.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To put into brisk or vigorous action; to move with life and vigor; -- usually with the reciprocal pronoun.
WordNet 3.0
- v. become active
Etymologies
- From Middle English bestyrien, bestirien, from Old English bestyrian ("to heap up, pile up"), equivalent to be- + stir. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English bistiren : probably bi-, be- + stiren, to rouse; see stir1. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Whereupon Snettishane, with visions of his incalculable interest keeping him awake of nights, thought it time to bestir himself.”
“We learned from the Urban League's Achievement Campaign that youngsters will respond if only the adults in the proverbial village bestir themselves to inspire and then recognize them.”
The Huffington Post: Hugh B. Price: Community Mobilization: A Missing Link in School Reform
“As the investor Benjamin Graham wrote in 1951: "Poor management is often paid more than it deserves; but here, if the stockholders bestir themselves at all, they should devote their efforts to changing personnel rather than pay.”
“Shadows lurk near the entrances to alleys, but none bestir themselves to trouble us.”
Simon & Schuster: Secret History of Elizabeth Tudor, Vampire Slayer
“Strangely, they just keep pontificating and “being concerned” and never bother to bestir themselves to actually research theissue.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » Major legal win for Students for Concealed Carry on Campus
“If there had been an assault, maybe they would bestir themselves.”
“Not to bestir the busybodies at the FTC, but the limitations Time Warner and Cablevision place on their cable apps amount to an agreement not to compete.”
“Did they bestir themselves on my trail, their dogs were too fat, and themselves too lean, to overtake me; also, I deemed their bestirring would be of an order for which I had made due preparation.”
“I prefer having a Democratic President, but I see no reason to bestir myself to fight for the guy, when he's so clearly disinclined to fight for the policies that I, and most of the people who voted for him, support.”
House, Senate At Odds Over Health Care Endgame If Brown Wins
“All this would probably have been beside the point, though, if he had made an offer rich enough to bestir Potash ' s institutional shareholders and its fundamentally American management to be enthused about selling the company.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘bestir’.
-
stirrings
karuna, splanknizomai, tenderhearted, ridibund, exorable, amove, compassion, whole-souled, synkinesis, aileron, seminole, Chahar Bagh School and 36 more...
-
Is it morning yet?
coterie, lexeme, counterbalance, forthright, pigtail, ponytail, french-braid, barrette, listless, counsel, sitting duck, dead duck and 268 more...
-
Belistful
Tubey or not tubey.
belittle, bedazzle, besiege, besmirch, bespeckle, beget, bemoan, befuddle, befriend, become, besot, becloud and 596 more...
-
Just 'cause I like 'em, B
bloviate, bejesus, brouhaha, behoove, bodacious, bamboozle, banshee, bub, bolus, blob, bubbly, bleb and 414 more...
-
Papageno's Words, Pt. I
hobbledehoy, absquatulate, chthonic, prolix, ululate, internecine, verisimilitude, animadversion, concupiscence, vertiginous, cucullate, lucubrate and 1554 more...
-
Becoming Words
inchoateness
effervescent, albescent, concrescence, fervescent, frondescent, suffrutescent, violescent, viridescent, resipiscence, rufescent, sonorescent, tenebrescence and 131 more...
-
ijk's Words
profligate, codefied, avuncular, blowsily, bumptious, bestir, inexorably, supercilious, de trop, ignominious, lugubriously, cognoscenti and 28 more...
-
mussitation
it is better to be alert
mussitation, skeuomorph, indigen, nostrum, bestir, obreption, nisus, fettle, midden, philtre, apodictic, mendicant and 4 more...
-
freerice words to learn
because the website is just that awesome.
allocution, embolism, napery, hemidemisemiquaver, bestir, moppet, ampoule, pullet, praenomen, philately, hauberk, ratiocination and 40 more...
-
Belist
Be- verbs (or verbals).
Words bewet through becalm were gratefully cribbed from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Be-bewitch, bedeck, bedaub, become, bewilder, beknight, bereave, believe, behead, besiege, bespeak, befriend and 53 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for bestir.
Comments
No comments yet...
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.