📖 B — The English dictionary · page 15

beaver — Everyday, meaning 1: A beaver is a large rodent with thick brown fur, strong teeth and a wide, flat tail, that lives near rivers and lakes.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: To beaver away is to work very hard and steadily at something.↗ Example: Beavers build dams across streams with sticks and mud.↗ · A beaver slapped its tail on the water as a warning.↗ · Beavers live in homes called lodges.↗ · The beaver is a symbol of Canada.↗ · She's been beavering away at her project all afternoon.↗ · Beavers' front teeth never stop growing.↗

because — Everyday, meaning 1: Because gives the reason for something.↗ e.g. I am wet because it rained.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: «Because of» comes before a noun to give the reason.↗ e.g. The game stopped because of the rain.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (casual) «Cos», «coz», «'cause» and in texts «bc» or «bcos» are short spoken or texted forms of because.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: (casual) «Because» alone, or «Just because», is a refusal to give a reason: «Why?»↗ «Because I said so.».↗ Everyday, meaning 5: (formal) The exam voice says «owing to», «due to», «on account of», «since», «in consequence of», «by virtue of» where a child would say «because».↗ Example: Student: I add : 9 (because of «more»)↗ · We subtract because some cookies were eaten.↗ · We multiply because there are 4 equal groups.↗ · I stayed home because I was sick.↗ · The plant died because it had no water.↗ · We could not play outside because of the storm.↗ · Leaves fall in autumn because the days grow cold.↗ · She smiled because she got a gold star.↗ · cant come cos mum says no↗ · only got 3 left bc my brother ate the rest↗ · «Why do I have to go to bed?»↗ «Because I said so, that's why.»↗ · Owing to the inclement weather, the outing was postponed.↗ · “Because I am grown up, dearest.↗ · Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great?↗ (Writings JOB.39.11, JPS 1917)↗ · So Jonah was exceeding glad because of the gourd.↗ (Prophets JON.4.6, JPS 1917)↗ · And they were adread because of the children of Israel.↗ (Torah EXO.1.12, JPS 1917)↗ · My wounds are noisome, they fester, because of my foolishness.↗ (Writings PSA.38.6, JPS 1917)↗

beckon — Everyday, meaning 1: To beckon is to move the hand or head to call someone to come closer.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: To beckon can also mean to attract or tempt, as bright lights seem to call you.↗ Example: She beckoned to me with her hand.↗ · The waves beckoned the children to the beach.↗ · The lights of the town beckoned to us.↗ · He nodded and beckoned us in.↗

become — Everyday, meaning 1: To become is to start to be something.↗ A seed becomes a plant.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: To become is to change into something new over time, like a caterpillar becomes a butterfly.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: Something becomes you if it looks nice on you (old-fashioned: «that dress becomes you»).↗ Example: After he gave away 5, his marbles became 12.↗ · The price became $8.↗ · The tadpoles become frogs.↗ · How many did it become?↗ · Water becomes ice at 0 degrees Celsius.↗ · I want to become a vet when I grow up.↗ · The two girls became best friends.↗ · The sky became dark and it started to rain.↗ · A caterpillar becomes a butterfly.↗ · It will soon become like ice.↗ · Art thou become like unto us?↗ (Prophets ISA.14.10, JPS 1917)↗ · Why is he become a prey?↗ (Prophets JER.2.14, JPS 1917)↗ · How is the gold become dim!↗ (Writings LAM.4.1, JPS 1917)↗

becomest — Early Modern English, meaning 1: «becomest» means «you become», a form of «become».↗ e.g. To become is to start to be something.↗ A seed becomes a plant.↗ Example: Poor child! thy friend's bridal chamber is a black coffin, and thou becomest an old maid.↗ (Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen)

becometh — Early Modern English, meaning 1: «becometh» means «becomes», a form of «become».↗ e.g. To become is to start to be something.↗ A seed becomes a plant.↗ Example: and she departeth out of his house, and goeth and becometh another man's wife,↗ (Torah DEU.24.2, JPS 1917)

bed — Everyday, meaning 1: A bed is furniture you sleep on.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A garden bed (flower bed) is a patch of ground for plants.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: The bed of a river or sea is the ground at its bottom.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: «Go to bed» means go to sleep at night.↗ Example: The hotel has 40 beds.↗ · Each flower bed has 12 tulips.↗ · He goes to bed at 8:30.↗ · The garden bed is 6 feet long.↗ · Please make your bed.↗ · We sleep in bunk beds.↗ · Crabs walk along the sea bed.↗ · The river bed was dry in summer.↗ · She read a story in bed.↗ · Children need about 10 hours of sleep, so go to bed on time.↗ · Get out of bed this minute."↗ · And Israel bowed down upon the bed's head.↗ (Torah GEN.47.31, JPS 1917)↗ · And whosoever toucheth his bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.↗ (Torah LEV.15.5, JPS 1917)↗ · And whosoever toucheth her bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.↗ (Torah LEV.15.21, JPS 1917)↗ · In the beds where it grew it shall wither.'↗ (Prophets EZK.17.10, JPS 1917)↗ · I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.↗ (Writings PRO.7.17, JPS 1917)↗ · So he arose from the earth, and sat upon the bed.↗ (Prophets 1SA.28.23, JPS 1917)↗

bedchamber — Everyday, meaning 1: (old, formal) A bedroom, especially in a palace or a grand house.↗ Early Modern English, meaning 1: A bedroom, especially a grand one in a palace or large house.↗ Example: The princess slept in a grand bedchamber.↗ · The prince crept into the king's bedchamber.↗ · Servants lit the fire in the queen's bedchamber.↗ · In the old castle we saw the royal bedchamber.↗ · The Lady of the Bedchamber helped the queen dress.↗ · Then the Three Bears thought it necessary that they should make farther search; so they went upstairs into their bedchamber.↗ · Curse not the king, no, not in thy thought, and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber; for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter.↗ (Writings ECC.10.20, JPS 1917)↗ · Then the Three Bears thought it necessary that they should make farther search; so they went upstairs into their bedchamber.↗ (English Fairy Tales) · One hall was more magnificent than the other; one might indeed well be abashed; and at last they came into the bedchamber.↗ (Andersen's Fairy Tales) · My sweetheart knows a little back stair that leads to the bedchamber, and she knows where she can get the key of it.”↗ (Andersen's Fairy Tales)

bedclothes — Everyday, meaning 1: The covers on a bed: sheets, blankets, a duvet or quilt, and pillowcases.↗ Example: She pulled the bedclothes over her head.↗ · Toad tied his bedclothes together to make a rope.↗ · The cat was asleep in a heap of bedclothes.↗ · Mum changes the bedclothes every week.↗ · The bedclothes were all tangled after the nightmare.↗ · Never climb out of a window on bedclothes – it's dangerous.↗ · They talked about it all, while the little Rabbit lay under the bedclothes, with just his head peeping out, and listened.↗

bedding — Everyday, meaning 1: The sheets, blankets, duvets, pillows and pillowcases on a bed.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Material such as straw, hay or wood shavings used for animals to sleep on.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: Bedding plants are small flowers planted in a garden bed for one season.↗ Example: Help me change the bedding on your bed.↗ · We wash our bedding every Saturday.↗ · The hamster needs fresh bedding.↗ · The horse had straw bedding in its stable.↗ · My new bedding has dinosaurs on it.↗ · Dust mites live in old bedding.↗ · Granny planted bedding plants along the path.↗ · Pack sleeping bags or bedding for the sleepover.↗ · It is better to lie quiet in the mud than to be disturbed on good bedding.↗

bedraggled — Everyday, meaning 1: Wet, dirty and messy, as when you have been out in rain or mud.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Looking untidy, worn out and sorry for yourself.↗ Example: The kitten came in from the rain looking bedraggled.↗ · After the storm, the garden flowers were bedraggled and bent.↗ · The bedraggled hikers finally reached the hut.↗ · The animals climbed out of the pool wet and bedraggled.↗ · My old teddy is bedraggled but I still love him.↗ · Toad arrived home bedraggled, muddy and very sorry for himself.↗ · Glad he was to see a light, and a minute after he was kneeling, dazed, drenched, and bedraggled by the hearth side.↗

bedrock — Everyday, meaning 1: The solid rock that lies under soil and loose rocks.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: The basic idea or part that everything else depends on.↗ Example: Under the soil lies solid bedrock.↗ · The skyscraper is built on bedrock.↗ · Trust is the bedrock of a good team.↗ · Reading is the bedrock of learning.↗ · The river cut down through the bedrock.↗ · Workers drilled into the bedrock.↗

bedroom — Everyday, meaning 1: A bedroom is a room for sleeping, with a bed in it.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: «A three-bedroom house» has three such rooms.↗ Example: The house has 3 bedrooms.↗ · The bedroom is 12 feet by 10 feet.↗ · Carpet for the bedroom costs 4 dollars a square foot.↗ · Each bedroom has 2 windows.↗ · I share a bedroom with my sister.↗ · Tidy your bedroom before you play.↗ · The spare bedroom is for guests.↗ · Her bedroom walls are painted green.↗ · He drew a plan of his bedroom.↗ · The bedroom door creaked open.↗ · At length they reached a bedroom.↗

bedside — Everyday, meaning 1: The area next to a bed.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Used before a noun for things kept next to a bed: a bedside table, bedside lamp.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: Being at someone's bedside means staying with someone who is ill in bed.↗ Example: I keep a book on my bedside table.↗ · Switch off the bedside lamp, please.↗ · Mum sat at my bedside when I had a fever.↗ · The family gathered at Grandad's bedside in the hospital.↗ · The doctor has a gentle bedside manner.↗ · My alarm clock is on the bedside cabinet.↗ · So he took up a rifle which he had laid at his bedside.↗

bedstead — Everyday, meaning 1: The frame of a bed, the part that holds up the mattress.↗ Example: The old bedstead creaked when she sat on it.↗ · Dad carried the iron bedstead up the stairs.↗ · The little bed has a painted wooden bedstead.↗

bedtime — Everyday, meaning 1: Bedtime is the time when you usually go to bed.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Bedtime can also describe things done just before sleeping, like a bedtime story.↗ Example: My bedtime is half past eight.↗ · Dad reads me a bedtime story every night.↗ · It's way past your bedtime!↗ · Brush your teeth before bedtime.↗ · No screens an hour before bedtime.↗ · On weekends my bedtime is later.↗ · If bedtime is 9 pm and I wake at 7 am, I sleep 10 hours.↗ · Her bedtime routine is bath, book, bed.↗ · In the old days at home the Neverland had always begun to look a little dark and threatening by bedtime.↗

bee — Everyday, meaning 1: A bee is a flying insect with a hairy body, often yellow and black striped, that collects nectar and pollen from flowers; some bees make honey and wax.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A bee is also a meeting or contest, like a spelling bee.↗ Example: A bee landed on the flower.↗ · Bees make honey from nectar.↗ · Stay calm if a bee flies near you.↗ · The queen bee lays all the eggs.↗ · Bumblebees are big and furry.↗ · She won the school spelling bee.↗ · Without bees, many fruits would not grow.↗ · He made a beeline for the cake.↗ · The bees could not be driven away.↗ · And the Amorites, that dwell in that hill-country, came out against you, and chased you, as bees do, and beat you down in Seir, even unto Hormah.↗ (Torah DEU.1.44, JPS 1917)↗ · They compass me about like bees; they are quenched as the fire of thorns; verily, in the name of the LORD I will cut them off.↗ (Writings PSA.118.12, JPS 1917)↗ · And after a while he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion; and, behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey.↗ (Prophets JDG.14.8, JPS 1917)↗ · And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.↗ (Prophets ISA.7.18, JPS 1917)↗

beech — Everyday, meaning 1: A beech is a large tree with smooth grey bark and shiny oval leaves, found in Europe and North America.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Beech is also the hard, pale wood of this tree, used to make furniture and toys.↗ Example: A huge beech tree grows in the park.↗ · The beech has smooth grey bark.↗ · Squirrels collect beechnuts in autumn.↗ · Our wooden spoon is made of beech.↗ · The beech hedge keeps its brown leaves in winter.↗ · Bluebells grow in the beech woods in spring.↗ · The nightingale sings among the finely-fringed beech-leaves, looking at the blooming apple trees of the garden, and thinking that they bear roses.↗