Word.ws English Dictionary

besow

/bɪˈsəʊ/

besow verb: to sow; sow all around or about; scatter; disperse; plant.

Verb

besow (third-person singular simple present besows, present participle besowing, simple past besowed, past participle besown or besowed)

  1. (transitive) To sow; sow all around or about; scatter; disperse; plant.
    • [...] is to miss for him all the advantage our civilization is prepared to besow upon his childhood.1898, International Association of Factory Inspectors, Annual convention of the International Association of Factory Inspectors

Forms of besow

third-person singular presentbesows
present participlebesowing
pastbesowed
past participlebesown
past participlebesowed

Origin of besow

From Middle English besowen, bisawen, from Old English besāwan (“to sow, sow about”); equivalent to be- + sow. Cognate with Middle High German besǣjen (“to besow”).

Questions about besow

What does besow mean?
Besow means to sow; sow all around or about; scatter; disperse; plant.
What part of speech is besow?
Besow is a verb.
How do you pronounce besow?
Besow is pronounced /bɪˈsəʊ/.
What is the past tense of besow?
The past tense of besow is besowed.

Words near besow in the dictionary

  1. besouled
  2. besouling
  3. besouls
  4. besour
  5. besoured
  6. besow
  7. besows
  8. besozzlement
  9. bespake
  10. bespangle
  11. bespangled

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: besow (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.

Last updated:

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