Definitions

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

  • transitive verb To dress; adorn.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Finely; well.
  • To set in order; arrange; dispose.
  • Reflexively, to set or address.
  • To put into a certain condition or position.
  • To dispose of; treat.
  • To prepare; make ready.
  • To prepare or make ready by dressing or cooking.
  • To prepare or make ready by equipping or arraying; dress; equip; array; deck; adorn.
  • To put into the proper or any desired condition by removing obstructions or inequalities; dress; clean.
  • By sifting or winnowing: as, to dight corn. [In sense 6, Scotch (pronounced dicht and sometimes spelled dicht) and North. Eng.]

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

  • transitive verb Archaic To prepare; to put in order; hence, to dress, or put on; to array; to adorn.
  • transitive verb obsolete To have sexual intercourse with.

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

  • verb obsolete, transitive To deal with, handle.
  • verb obsolete, transitive To have sexual intercourse with.
  • verb obsolete, transitive To dispose, put (in a given state or condition).
  • verb obsolete, transitive To compose, make.
  • verb archaic, transitive To furnish, equip.
  • verb archaic, transitive To dress, array; to adorn.
  • verb archaic, transitive To make ready, prepare.

Etymologies

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

[Middle English dighten, from Old English dihtan, to arrange, from Latin dictāre, to dictate, order; see dictate.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English dihtan, from Latin dictāre. Compare dictate; and also parallel formations in German dichten, Dutch dichten, Swedish dikta.

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Examples

  • The latest entry Sommer prowde with Daffadillies dight, Posted Saturday, April 30, 2005—there are no permalinks focuses on the word "dight," which I knew as an archaic word for 'adorn'; I probably once knew, but had forgotten, that it was from Latin dictāre 'to dictate, order.'

    languagehat.com: DIGHT. 2005

  • I wonder which sense of "dight" gave rise to its use in a sexual context: "adorn, decorate" or "order, dictate."

    languagehat.com: DIGHT. 2005

  • Question about the etymology- although 'dight' surely does look derived from 'dictare', can't it also be some variant of 'decked'?

    languagehat.com: DIGHT. 2005

  • When I read the word "dight," my mind went immediately back to Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde, l. 146, "in Omer, or in Dares, or in Dyte."

    languagehat.com: DIGHT. 2005

  • Indeed, Moulsworth vows to transmute the faulty model provided by the Biblical Martha, the archetypal busy housewife: Moulsworth plans to "dight" (or make ready) her "Inward house" (l. 19) and thus prepare an appropriate habitation for Christ.

    My Name Was Martha: A Renaissance Woman's Autobiographical Poem 1993

  • Let's not lose dight of the main objective: a Democrat in the White House.

    SurveyUSA: Clinton Ahead By 16 Points In Indiana Primary 2009

  • Father, thou hearest thy children's lamentation; say, shall I e'er, as warrior dight, avenge thy slaughter?

    The Suppliants 2008

  • So they arrayed them in gold and many a fair thing, and she went with her damsels till they came to the hall of Brynhild, and that hall was dight with gold, and stood on a high hill; and whenas their goings were seen, it was told Brynhild, that a company of women drove toward the burg in gilded waggons.

    The Story of the Volsungs 2008

  • I give thee gold and all kinds of good things to take to thee after thy father, dear bought rings and bed-gear of the maids of the Huns, the most courteous and well dight of all women; and thus is thy husband atoned for: and thereafter shalt thou be given to

    The Story of the Volsungs 2008

  • Father, thou hearest thy children's lamentation; say, shall I e'er, as warrior dight, avenge thy slaughter?

    The Suppliants 2008

Comments

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  • (v): to equip, prepare; to adorn.

    January 15, 2009

  • Gaily bedight, a gallant knight...

    January 15, 2009

  • To eat certain foods and not others.

    November 15, 2009

  • Bilby! Here you are!

    November 15, 2009

  • I've been on a dight. Lost my appetite for words, word-adding and word-commenting :-(

    November 15, 2009

  • Too bad. Want to talk about it? If you're on a dight you can still have some of these.

    November 15, 2009

  • If those don't fill you up, try these.

    November 15, 2009

  • Heehee!

    November 16, 2009

  • JM dutifully dights daily.

    February 4, 2011

  • To deck the hall with Christmas light
    Was all I meant that fateful night.
    But isn't it good
    You misunderstood
    What I intended by "Let us dight!"


    Curiously the Word of the Day notification for "dight" omits its liveliest alternative meaning, for which see the regular Wordnik entry.

    June 8, 2014