BEFIT (befitted, befitting)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: befitted    , befitting   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does befit mean? 

• BEFIT (verb)
  The verb BEFIT has 1 sense:

1. accord or comport with

  Familiarity information: BEFIT used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BEFIT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they befit    ... he / she / it befits   
Past simple: befitted   
Past participle: befitted   
-ing form: befitting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Accord or comport with

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

befit; beseem; suit

Context example:

This kind of behavior does not suit a young woman!

Hypernyms (to "befit" is one way to...):

agree; check; correspond; fit; gibe; jibe; match; tally (be compatible, similar or consistent; coincide in their characteristics)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

 Context examples 

Miss Ingram rose solemnly: "I go first," she said, in a tone which might have befitted the leader of a forlorn hope, mounting a breach in the van of his men.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Associated with men; befitting or characteristic of a man.

(Masculine, NCI Thesaurus)

In doing this, I underwent a kind of rough usage, ill befitting the wounds that my mind had sustained.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Nay, lady, said du Guesclin, it does not befit so great and wondrous a power to pry and search and play the varlet even to the beautiful chatelaine of Villefranche.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Associated with women; befitting or characteristic of a woman.

(Feminine, NCI Thesaurus)

They have certain professors well skilled in preparing children for such a condition of life as befits the rank of their parents, and their own capacities, as well as inclinations.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

For two hours we rambled about together, in silence for the most part, as befits two men who know each other intimately.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I had slept late, and I stepped outside with sudden energy, bent upon making up lost time as befitted a dweller on Endeavour Island.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

His brisk trade was only brought to an end by the appearance of Harrison, who climbed in a very leisurely manner over the ropes, as befitted his more mature years and less elastic joints.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

We have been unfortunate, and recent events have drawn us from that everyday tranquillity befitting my years and infirmities.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)