betine

betine verb: to hedge about; enclose; shut up.

Verb (1)

betine (third-person singular simple present betines, present participle betining, simple past and past participle betined)

(obsolete, transitive) To hedge about; enclose; shut up.
- This year began Ida to reign, from whom arose the royal race of Northumbria; and he reigned twelve years and 'getimbered' Bebbanburh, which at first was 'betined' with a wall.1904, The Eagle, volumes 25-26, page 325

Verb (2)

betine (third-person singular simple present betines, present participle betining, simple past and past participle betined)

(obsolete, transitive) To set fire to.

Forms of betine

third-person singular present	betines
present participle	betining
past participle	betined
past	betined
alternative form	betyne
alternative form	betune
alternative form	betun

Origin of betine

From Middle English betinen, betynen, bitunen, bituinen, from Old English betȳnan (“to hedge in, enclose, shut, bury; shut out; conclude, end”), from Proto-West Germanic *bitūnijan (“to inclose, hedge about”), equivalent to be- + tine. Cognate with Middle Dutch betuinen, Middle Low German betü̂nen, Middle High German beziunen (German bezäunen (“to fence in, surround, border”)).

From be- + tine, variation of tind (“to set fire to”). More at tind.

Words formed from betine

betined

Questions about betine

What does betine mean?: Betine means to hedge about; enclose; shut up.
What part of speech is betine?: Betine is a verb.
What is the past tense of betine?: The past tense of betine is betined.

Words near betine in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: betine (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: 2026-09-02

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