Word.ws English Dictionary

belave

belave verb: to lave or wash about; wash all over; wash.

Verb (1)

belave (third-person singular simple present belaves, present participle belaving, simple past and past participle belaved)

  1. (transitive) To lave or wash about; wash all over; wash.

Verb (2)

belave (third-person singular simple present belaves, present participle belaving, simple past and past participle belaved)

  1. (archaic, intransitive) to remain, continue; to belay
  2. (archaic, intransitive) to be alive

Forms of belave

third-person singular presentbelaves
present participlebelaving
past participlebelaved
pastbelaved

Origin of belave

From Middle English bilaven (“to wash all over”), from bi-, be- + laven (“to wash, pour water on”), equivalent to be- + lave.

Anomalous alteration of beleve (“to remain, be alive”) and belive (“to remain, stay”), both from Middle English beliven (“to remain”), from Old English belīfan (“to remain”), from Proto-Germanic *bilībaną (“to remain”). More at belive, leave.

Questions about belave

What does belave mean?
Belave means to lave or wash about; wash all over; wash.
What part of speech is belave?
Belave is a verb.
What is the past tense of belave?
The past tense of belave is belaved.

Words near belave in the dictionary

  1. belauder
  2. belauders
  3. belauding
  4. belauds
  5. belaugh
  6. belave
  7. belaved
  8. belaves
  9. belaving
  10. Belawan
  11. belawgiven

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: belave (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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Cite this entry: “belave.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/belave. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.