Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. Archaic To dress; adorn.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To set in order; arrange; dispose.
- Reflexively, to set or address.
- To put into a certain condition or position.
- To dispose of; treat.
- To prepare; make ready.
- To prepare or make ready by dressing or cooking.
- To prepare or make ready by equipping or arraying; dress; equip; array; deck; adorn.
- To put into the proper or any desired condition by removing obstructions or inequalities; dress; clean. specically — To dress or smooth, as a stone by chiseling or a board by planing.
- By sifting or winnowing: as, to dight corn. [In sense 6, Scotch (pronounced dicht and sometimes spelled dicht) and North. Eng.]
- Finely; well.
Wiktionary
- v. To deal with, handle.
- v. To have sexual intercourse with.
- v. To dispose, put (in a given state or condition).
- v. To compose, make.
- v. To furnish, equip.
- v. To dress, array; to adorn.
- v. To make ready, prepare.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To prepare; to put in order; hence, to dress, or put on; to array; to adorn.
- v. To have sexual intercourse with.
Etymologies
- Middle English dighten, from Old English dihtan, to arrange, from Latin dictāre, to dictate, order; see dictate.
Examples
“When I read the word "dight," my mind went immediately back to Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde, l. 146, "in Omer, or in Dares, or in Dyte.”
“The latest entry Sommer prowde with Daffadillies dight, Posted Saturday, April 30, 2005—there are no permalinks focuses on the word "dight," which I knew as an archaic word for 'adorn'; I probably once knew, but had forgotten, that it was from Latin dictāre 'to dictate, order.”
“Question about the etymology- although 'dight' surely does look derived from 'dictare', can't it also be some variant of 'decked'?”
“I wonder which sense of "dight" gave rise to its use in a sexual context: "adorn, decorate" or "order, dictate.”
“Indeed, Moulsworth vows to transmute the faulty model provided by the Biblical Martha, the archetypal busy housewife: Moulsworth plans to "dight" (or make ready) her "Inward house" (l. 19) and thus prepare an appropriate habitation for Christ.”
My Name Was Martha: A Renaissance Woman's Autobiographical Poem
“Let's not lose dight of the main objective: a Democrat in the White House.”
“Father, thou hearest thy children's lamentation; say, shall I e'er, as warrior dight, avenge thy slaughter?”
“So they arrayed them in gold and many a fair thing, and she went with her damsels till they came to the hall of Brynhild, and that hall was dight with gold, and stood on a high hill; and whenas their goings were seen, it was told Brynhild, that a company of women drove toward the burg in gilded waggons.”
“I give thee gold and all kinds of good things to take to thee after thy father, dear bought rings and bed-gear of the maids of the Huns, the most courteous and well dight of all women; and thus is thy husband atoned for: and thereafter shalt thou be given to”
“Sharrkan looked at her his wits went nigh to fly away from him with delight; and he forgot army and Wazir as he gazed on her fair head decked and dight with a net work of pearls set off by divers sorts of gems.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘dight’.
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-ight
light, night, wight, hight, knight, fight, bright, right, fright, bight, eight, might and 174 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Words of the day
The list of Wordnik words of the day.
panurgic, chapfallen, billingsgate, latration, witticaster, slitheroo, rux, crotchet, mirliton, arenose, ruelle, jane-of-apes and 76 more...
jmjarmstrong JM dutifully dights daily. Feb 3, 2011
reesetee Heehee! Nov 15, 2009
mollusque If those don't fill you up, try these. Nov 15, 2009
Prolagus Too bad. Want to talk about it? If you're on a dight you can still have some of these. Nov 15, 2009
bilby I've been on a dight. Lost my appetite for words, word-adding and word-commenting :-( Nov 15, 2009
Prolagus Bilby! Here you are! Nov 15, 2009
bilby To eat certain foods and not others. Nov 15, 2009
yarb Gaily bedight, a gallant knight... Jan 15, 2009
hernesheir (v): to equip, prepare; to adorn. Jan 15, 2009