Word.ws English Dictionary

betime

/bɪˈtaɪm/

betime verb: to occur; betide.

Verb

betime (third-person singular simple present betimes, present participle betiming, simple past and past participle betimed)

  1. (archaic, intransitive) To occur; betide.
    • Away, away, no time ſhalbe omitted, / That will be time and may by vs be fitted.c. 1595–1596 (date written), W. Shakespere [i.e., William Shakespeare], A Pleasant Conceited Comedie Called, Loues Labors Lost. […] (First Quarto), London: […] W[illiam] W[hite] for Cut[h]bert Burby...

Adverb

betime (not comparable)

  1. Betimes.
    • Send succours (lords), and stop the rage betime, Before the wound do grow uncurable; For being green, there is great hope of help."1868, Mary Frances Cusack, An Illustrated History of Ireland from AD 400 to 1800
    • Her feature all as fresh aboue, As is the grasse that grows by Doue, as lyth as lasse of Kent: Her skin as soft as Lemster wooll, As white as snow on peakish hull, or Swanne that swims in Trent. 30 This mayden in a morne betime, Went forth when May was in her prime, to get sweet Cetywall, The...1907, Michael Drayton, Minor Poems of Michael Drayton

Synonyms of betime

Forms of betime

third-person singular presentbetimes
present participlebetiming
past participlebetimed
pastbetimed

Origin of betime

From Middle English bitimen (“to happen”); equivalent to be- + time (verb). Compare betide.

From Middle English by-tyme (“by time”); equivalent to by + time.

Words formed from betime

Words that rhyme with betime

31 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about betime

What does betime mean?
Betime means to occur; betide.
What part of speech is betime?
Betime can be a verb or an adverb.
How do you pronounce betime?
Betime is pronounced /bɪˈtaɪm/.
What is the past tense of betime?
The past tense of betime is betimed.

Words near betime in the dictionary

  1. betighted
  2. betimber
  3. betimbered
  4. betimbering
  5. betimbers
  6. betime
  7. betimed
  8. betimely
  9. betimes
  10. betiming
  11. betine

Source and license

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