Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb Used chiefly in the imperative to express an order of dismissal.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Be gone; go away; depart.
  • Past participle of bego.

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

  • interjection Go away; depart; get you gone.
  • past participle obsolete Surrounded; furnished; beset; environed (as in woe-begone).

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

  • verb Past participle of bego
  • interjection Expressing a desire for someone or something to go away.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English begone : be, imperative of ben, to be; see be + gone, past participle of gon, to go; see go.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Inflected forms.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Originally two words: be + gone.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word begone.

Examples

  • -- Our mutual perturbation did not escape the prying witch; my countenance red, hers pale -- The word begone! maddened to break loose from my impatient tongue.

    Anna St. Ives Thomas Holcroft 1777

  • I don't like to 'begone' -- I refuse to git when I'm told, so, of course, I paid my respects to Natalie and her mother.

    The Iron Trail Rex Ellingwood Beach 1913

  • “Think not I meant to implore permission to reside here; it has been long my determination to leave Avenel, and I will never forgive myself for having permitted you to say the word begone, ere I said, ‘I leave you.’

    The Abbot 2008

  • It begins by bidding "loathed Melancholy" begone "'Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights unholy," and by bidding come

    English Literature for Boys and Girls

  • Men would have dragged Bryde off, but he hissed a "begone" through clenched teeth

    The McBrides A Romance of Arran John Sillars

  • If this spectral company becomes too much for me I must loudly command them, even shout at them, "begone," and if that does no good I must wish for a whip - which forthwith appears - and give them a sound thrashing.

    The Bride of Dreams Frederik van Eeden 1896

  • Those who expected to find him maudlin, helpless, disconsolate, shrank from the cold, hard eyes and truculent voice that bade them "begone," and "leave him with his dead."

    Drift from Two Shores Bret Harte 1869

  • Thinking it her favorite Carlo, and being in no mood for a frolic, without lifting her eyes she bid him "begone;" but she was soon undeceived by a shrill voice pronouncing her name, at the same time finding her arm tightly grasped by the thin, bony fingers of Crazy Nell, the terror of all the truant children in the village.

    Small Means and Great Ends 1838

  • But the people would have no dealings with us, and two sworded officials, in sweeping robes of silk that made Captain Johannes Maartens 'mouth water, came aboard of us and politely requested us to begone.

    Chapter 15 2010

  • It stood crouched, with tail between its legs, like a miserable and woe-begone dog.

    LOVE OF LIFE 2010

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Decayed, worn.

    The thatch of this house is lamentably begone. - Grose's A Provincial Glossary, 1787.

    May 4, 2011

  • Gandalf used this word when he was ridding Theoden of Saruman's presence.

    June 12, 2012