Word.ws English Dictionary

besay

besay verb: to say about (someone or something); get something across verbally or by saying; relay; signify; declare.

Verb

besay (third-person singular simple present besays, present participle besaying, simple past and past participle besaid)

  1. To say about (someone or something); get something across verbally or by saying; relay; signify; declare.
    • "Laughter," reproved Najib, cut to the soul by his chief's ridicule, "laughter is for hyenas — and for women! as I have besaid of often.1925, Albert Payson Terhune, Najib
    • The 'besaid' are articulate with words and with silence.2003, Philip Auslander, Performance: Media and technology

Forms of besay

third-person singular presentbesays
present participlebesaying
past participlebesaid
pastbesaid

Origin of besay

From Middle English besayen, biseggen, from Old English beseċġan (“to announce, introduce; defend, excuse oneself; accuse”), from Proto-Germanic *bisagjaną, equivalent to be- (“about, concerning, across”) + say. Cognate with Dutch bezeggen, German besagen (“to say”).

Questions about besay

What does besay mean?
Besay means to say about (someone or something); get something across verbally or by saying; relay; signify; declare.
What part of speech is besay?
Besay is a verb.
What is the past tense of besay?
The past tense of besay is besaid.

Words near besay in the dictionary

  1. besashed
  2. besat
  3. besatcheled
  4. besaw
  5. Besaws
  6. besay
  7. besayle
  8. besayles
  9. besays
  10. Bescar
  11. bescare

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: besay (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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