BESPOKE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Bespoke

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verb

Bespeak v. t. (past bespoke, archaic bespake; past part. bespoken; pres. part. bespeaking)

To speak or arrange for beforehand; to order or engage against a future time; as, to bespeak goods, a right, or a favor. "Concluding, naturally, that to gratify his avarice was to bespeak his favor."

To show beforehand; to foretell; to indicate. "(They) bespoke dangers... in order to scare the allies."

To betoken; to show; to indicate by external marks or appearances. "When the abbot of St. Martin was born, he had so little the figure of a man that it bespoke him rather a monster."

To speak to; to address. (Poetic) "He thus the queen bespoke."

Bespeak v. i. (past bespoke, archaic bespake; past part. bespoken; pres. part. bespeaking) To speak. (Obs.)

Bespoke v. Imp. & p. p. of Bespeak.

See images of 'Bespoke'

Etymology of 'Bespoke'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Bespoke" Quotes from Famous Books

... considerable interest and curiosity on the two advancing parties. Those eyes belonged to a solitary horseman, who stood on the edge of the wild precipice that overhung the pass. The hunter, for such his leathern dress bespoke him, stood beside his horse, his right arm over its arched neck, and his right hand patting its sleek shoulder. From the position which he occupied he could see without being seen. His magnificent steed seemed to be aware that danger was ...

— The Wild Man of the West - A Tale of the Rocky Mountains • R.M. Ballantyne

... backs and sometimes the sides of books. When patriotism animated a work, instead of unmeaning ornaments on the binding, he adorned it with caps of liberty. When wisdom filled the page, the owl's majestic gravity bespoke its contents. The caduceus pointed out the works of eloquence, and the wand of AEsculapius was a signal of good medicine. The different emblems were used on the same book, when possessed of different merits, and to express his disapprobation of the whole or parts of any work, the ...

— A Collection of College Words and Customs • Benjamin Homer Hall

... had an outline in vagueness, and was flung out to be apprehended, not dissected. Her directions for the reading of Miss Middleton's character were the same that she practised in reading Sir Willoughby's, whose physiognomy and manners bespoke him what she presumed him to be, a splendidly ...

— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... others wretched! who abide In such a mansion, as scarce thought finds words To speak of, better had ye here on earth Been flocks or mountain goats. As down we stood In the dark pit beneath the giants' feet, But lower far than they, and I did gaze Still on the lofty battlement, a voice Bespoke me thus: "Look how thou walkest. Take Good heed, thy soles do tread not on the heads Of thy poor brethren." Thereupon I turn'd, And saw before and underneath my feet A lake, whose frozen surface liker seem'd To glass ...

— The Divine Comedy, Complete - The Vision of Paradise, Purgatory and Hell • Dante Alighieri

... to speak against the Griggs Bill he didn't look the youngster he had been pictured. His tall, lithe, compelling figure was drawn to its full height. His eyes darkened to intensity with the gravity of the task before him; the stern lines of his mouth bespoke a master of the situation and compelled confidence in ...

— David Dunne - A Romance of the Middle West • Belle Kanaris Maniates

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