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BEFIT
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
Irregular inflected forms: befitted , befitting
I. (verb)
Verb forms
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
Example:
This kind of behavior does not suit a young woman!
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Verbs of being, having, spatial relations
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:
The youth was not clad in monastic garb, but in lay attire, though his jerkin, cloak and hose were all of a sombre hue, as befitted one who dwelt in sacred precincts.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The rough-and-tumble work in Afghanistan, coming on the top of a natural Bohemianism of disposition, has made me rather more lax than befits a medical man.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I wish to remind you that it was you who first said to me, with that discretion I respect in you—with that foresight, prudence, and humility which befit your responsible and dependent position—that in case I married Miss Ingram, both you and little Adele had better trot forthwith.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
But these are not thoughts befitting me; I will endeavour to resign myself cheerfully to death and will indulge a hope of meeting you in another world.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
His eyes were bright and searching, with something of menace and of authority in their quick glitter, and his mouth was firm-set and hard, as befitted one who was wont to set his face against danger.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
If the study to which you apply yourself has a tendency to weaken your affections and to destroy your taste for those simple pleasures in which no alloy can possibly mix, then that study is certainly unlawful, that is to say, not befitting the human mind.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
Behind came Sir Nigel himself, with Lady Loring upon his arm, the pair walking slowly and sedately, as befitted both their age and their condition, while they watched with a smile in their eyes the scrambling crowd in front of them.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
