besteads

Verb (1)

bestead (third-person singular simple present besteads, present participle besteading, simple past besteaded, past participle bestead)

1. (transitive) To help, assist.
   • She indifferently makes profit of all; even errours and dreames, doe profitably beſteade-her, as a loyall matter, to bring-vs vnto ſafetie and contentment.1603, Michel de Montaigne, “That the taste of goods or evilles doth greatly depend on the opinion we have of them”, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes...

   Synonyms:

   aid

2. (transitive) To profit; benefit; serve; avail.
   • With forty sous which remained, he went to a low gambling house, where fortune, or something surer to the skilful practitioner, so well besteaded him that he was able to clothe himself decently preparatory to entering Frascati's, the fashionable hell of Paris—a den of abomination early suppressed...1859, Southern literary messenger, volume 28

   Synonyms:

   bestand

Verb (2)

bestead (third-person singular simple present besteads, present participle besteading, simple past and past participle besteaded)

1. (transitive) To take the place of; replace.

See all 6 meanings of bestead