Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Past participle, and obsolete present plural and infinitive, of be.
  • noun See vina.
  • noun Obsolete plural of bee
  • See bein.
  • noun A fretted stringed instrument of music of the guitar kind, having nineteen frets, used in India.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • The past participle of be. In old authors it is also the pr. tense plural of be. See 1st bee.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Plural form of bee.
  • verb Past participle of be
  • verb obsolete were

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English, from Old English bēon ("bees"), nominative and accusative plural of bēo ("bee"). More at bee.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English ybeen, from Old English ġebēon, past participle of bēon ("to be").

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Examples

Comments

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  • See this map for American pronunciation.

    April 10, 2008