Word.ws English Dictionary

bework

UK/bɪˈwɜːk/US/bɪˈwɝk/

bework verb: to work around or about; surround.

Verb

bework (third-person singular simple present beworks, present participle beworking, simple past and past participle beworked or (archaic) bewrought)

  1. (transitive) To work around or about; surround.
  2. (transitive) To work, as with thread; embroider.
  3. (transitive) To work over; rework; edit.
    • The author, who knows the answer, beworks his brains to give it in a satisfactory and intelligible form to his audience; [...]1882, John Devenish Hoppus, Riverside papers

Forms of bework

third-person singular presentbeworks
present participlebeworking
past participlebeworked
pastbeworked
past participle (archaic)bewrought
past (archaic)bewrought

Origin of bework

From Middle English bewurchen, from Old English bewyrċean, bewyrċan (“to work, construct, surround with, enclose, cover, work in, insert, adorn”), from Proto-Germanic *bi- + *wirkijaną (“to work”), equivalent to be- + work. Cognate with North Frisian bewerke (“to bework, edit”), Dutch bewerken (“to work, manipulate”), German bewirken (“to bring about, effect”), Danish bevirke (“to cause”). More at be-, work.

Questions about bework

What does bework mean?
Bework means to work around or about; surround.
What part of speech is bework?
Bework is a verb.
How do you pronounce bework?
Bework is pronounced /bɪˈwɜːk/ (UK).
What is the past tense of bework?
The past tense of bework is beworked.

Words near bework in the dictionary

  1. bewonder
  2. bewondered
  3. bewonderment
  4. beword
  5. bewore
  6. bework
  7. beworking
  8. bewormed
  9. beworried
  10. beworries
  11. beworry

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bework (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.

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