Word.ws English Dictionary

beshrew

beshrew verb: to invoke or wish evil upon; to curse.

Verb

beshrew (third-person singular simple present beshrews, present participle beshrewing, simple past and past participle beshrewed)

  1. (archaic, transitive) To invoke or wish evil upon; to curse.
    • Beshrew me, but you have a quick wit.c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
    • I had expected to freeze her young – or, rather, middle-aged – blood and have her perm stand on end like quills upon the fretful porpentine, and she hadn't moved a muscle. “Beshrew me,” I said, “you take it pretty calmly.”1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC
  2. (transitive) An imperative uttered as a mildly imprecatory or merely expletive introductory exclamation.
    • Beshrew your heart, fair daughter!c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […]...
    • R[oderico] D[’Avolos]. Beſhrevv my heart, but that’s not ſo good. / Duke [Phillippo Caraffa, Duke of Pavy]. Ha, vvhat’s that thou miſlik’ſt D'auolos?1633, Iohn Ford [i.e., John Ford], Loues Sacrifice. A Tragedie […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Hugh Beeston, […], →OCLC, Act III

Forms of beshrew

third-person singular presentbeshrews
present participlebeshrewing
past participlebeshrewed
pastbeshrewed

Origin of beshrew

From Middle English beschrewen (“to curse, pervert”). By surface analysis, be- + shrew.

Questions about beshrew

What does beshrew mean?
Beshrew means to invoke or wish evil upon; to curse.
What part of speech is beshrew?
Beshrew is a verb.
What is the past tense of beshrew?
The past tense of beshrew is beshrewed.

Words near beshrew in the dictionary

  1. beshout
  2. beshouted
  3. beshouting
  4. beshouts
  5. beshow
  6. beshrew
  7. beshrewed
  8. beshrewing
  9. beshrews
  10. beshroud
  11. beshrouded

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: beshrew (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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