Definitions

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

  • noun The Egyptian god of music and revelry and the guardian deity of women in labor, often depicted as a dwarf.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In Rom. metrology, two thirds of a unit or eight twelfths of an as; especially, eight cyathi or two thirds of a sextarius; also, the name of a small copper coin. Also bessis.

Etymologies

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

[Egyptian bs.]

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Examples

  • Then I ate some food and, calling Bes, made ready to start for the palace.

    The Ancient Allan Henry Rider Haggard 1890

  • 'Bes' go an 'rub a bit more chilli powder on them salamanders or their tails'll be hangin' off 'em next.

    Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Rowling, J. K. 2003

  • The monstrosity had been nicknamed "Bes," after the monstrous dwarf god of

    The Hawk of Egypt Joan Conquest

  • After this the feast went on without further incident for a while, the Easterns always drinking more wine, till at length the tables were cleared and all of the meaner sort departed from the hall, save the butlers and the personal servants such as Bes, who stood behind the seats of their masters.

    The Ancient Allan Henry Rider Haggard 1890

  • You will be rich also, Bes, that is, if we can take the gold I won with us, since half of it is yours. "

    The Ancient Allan Henry Rider Haggard 1890

  • "Amada whom you love and whose name you, or rather your servant Bes, which is the same thing since it will be held that he did it by your order, gave to the King of the East, or so I understand.

    The Ancient Allan Henry Rider Haggard 1890

  • "Bes," I said when he was out of hearing, "my heart sinks.

    The Ancient Allan Henry Rider Haggard 1890

  • "Bes," he said sternly, "I think you grow dull since you became a king -- or perhaps it is marriage that makes you so.

    The Ancient Allan Henry Rider Haggard 1890

  • Take a close look at the Egyptian “god” Bes for example.

    Cheeseburger Gothic » Well that was AWSM! 2010

  • I would think that the Rambam, as a Sephardi Jew, the Rambam would have been quite familiar with glatt kosher (though not the term “glatt”, which is Yiddish); the Bes Yosef (who, granted, lived after the Rambam) ruled that there cannot be lesions on the lungs of a kosher animal, even if those lesions have healed.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » A Thought on American Jewish Demography 2010

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