betow
betow verb: to tow about; pull; draw; lead about; conduct.
Verb
betow (third-person singular simple present betows, present participle betowing, simple past and past participle betowed)
- To tow about; pull; draw; lead about; conduct.
- To educate; influence; steer; direct.
- To bestow; apply.
- For Henry, as lord Bacon observes, loved to employ and advance prelates; because, having rich bishoprics to betow, it was easy for him to reward their services: […]1821, David Hume, The history of England from the invasion of Julius Cæsar to the accession of Henry VII
Forms of betow
| third-person singular present | betows |
|---|---|
| present participle | betowing |
| past participle | betowed |
| past | betowed |
Origin of betow
From be- + tow, or as a back-formation from Middle English betowen (“bestowed, applied”), past participle of bitēn (“to tug, pull, cover, apply, devote, employ, bring about, perform”), from Old English betēon (“to cover, surround, enclose”).
Words that rhyme with betow
Questions about betow
- What does betow mean?
- Betow means to tow about; pull; draw; lead about; conduct.
- What part of speech is betow?
- Betow is a verb.
- What is the past tense of betow?
- The past tense of betow is betowed.
Words near betow in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: betow (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: “betow.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/betow. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.