Word.ws English Dictionary

behappen

behappen verb: to happen to, to befall.

Verb

behappen (third-person singular simple present behappens, present participle behappening, simple past and past participle behappened)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To happen to, to befall.
    • "But why have ye," said Artegall, "forborne
      Your owne good shield in daungerous dismay?
      That is the greatest shame and foulest scorne,
      Which unto any knight behappen may.
      To loose the badge that should his deedes display."1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene Book V LII
    • And where now might Timothy Tipkin sifflicate that it may behappen to be for to come from? Pummel thy pumkin, and a tell me that, Peter Grievous. Where, but out of my pouche, Gaby? That is, I first havin and holdin the wherewithalls, and the whys, and the wherefores. Do you take me now? So that...1792, Thomas Holcroft, Anna St. Ives. a Novel

Adverb

behappen (not comparable)

  1. (dialectal, obsolete) Perhaps, mayhap.
    • Behappen it ul rain.1841, Charles Henry Hartshorne, Salopia Antiqua: Or, An Enquiry from Personal Survey Into the 'druidical,' Military, and Other Early Remains in Shropshire and the North Welsh Borders; with...

Forms of behappen

third-person singular presentbehappens
present participlebehappening
past participlebehappened
pastbehappened

Origin of behappen

From Middle English behappenen, equivalent to be- + happen, analogous to befall.

Words that rhyme with behappen

Questions about behappen

What does behappen mean?
Behappen means to happen to, to befall.
What part of speech is behappen?
Behappen can be a verb or an adverb.
What is the past tense of behappen?
The past tense of behappen is behappened.

Words near behappen in the dictionary

  1. behanging
  2. behangs
  3. Behans
  4. behap
  5. behapped
  6. behappen
  7. behappened
  8. behappening
  9. behappens
  10. behapping
  11. behaps

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: behappen (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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