Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To come to pass; happen.
- intransitive verb Used with the impersonal subject it and a following clause to indicate the occurrence of a usually unexpected or chance event:
- intransitive verb To happen to: synonym: happen.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To fall or happen to; occur to.
- To happen; come to pass.
- To fall in the way; come to hand.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- intransitive verb To come to pass; to happen.
- transitive verb To happen to.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb intransitive To
happen . - verb transitive To happen to.
- noun
Case ;instance ;circumstance ;event ;incident ;accident .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb happen, occur, or be the case in the course of events or by chance
- verb become of; happen to
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Wherefore, such opinions and persuasions are gradually insinuated into the mind, and are admitted insensibly without opposition or reluctancy, being never accompanied at their first admission with any secular disadvantage; -- but these divine convictions by the word befall men, some when they think of nothing less and desire nothing less; some when they design other things, as the pleasing of their ears or the entertainment of their company; and some that go on purpose to deride and scoff at what should be spoken unto them from it.
Pneumatologia 1616-1683 1967
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For although no calamity, such as man is subject to, befall, which is for the most part impossible, even thus, better is he that seeks not wealth, but knows how to bear all things easily than he that is always rich.
NPNF1-12. Saint Chrysostom: Homilies on the Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians Editor 1889
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New developments in the Plame case are promising -- for those who would like to see justice 'befall' the Whitehouse thugs.
OpEdNews - Quicklink: A Tug On The Noose Around the Whitehouse's Neck 2005
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VIEW FAVORITES yahooBuzzArticleHeadline = 'A Tug On The Noose Around the Whitehouse\'s Neck '; yahooBuzzArticleSummary =' New developments in the Plame case are promising -- for those who would like to see justice "befall" the Whitehouse thugs. '
OpEdNews - Quicklink: A Tug On The Noose Around the Whitehouse's Neck 2005
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But it was all of the same character, broad farce; accounts of mishaps such as befall in children's pantomimes, -- which their seniors enjoy, too, -- practical jokes equally ludicrous, and resulting situations to match.
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Great events, such as befall only a few, are thus excluded, and in the hope of helping to present a clue, by example, to the perplexities of daily life, the incidents, which render a story exciting, have been sacrificed, and the attempt has been to make the interest of the books depend on character painting.
The Two Guardians or, Home in This World Charlotte Mary Yonge 1862
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I say, it is the widest of all, for all others put no great difference between men as men, they do reach the peculiar excellency of a man, that is, the true, and proper, good of his spiritual and immortal part, they are such as befall alike to good and bad, and so cannot have either much good or much evil in them.
The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning Hugh Binning 1640
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And no hurt shall befall me, because the shark with the shortest tail is my friend and will protect me. '
THE WATER BABY 2010
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See that this man go free, and that no harm befall him.
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Even now he cometh with witcheries and sorceries; so beware thy tongue, lest evil befall thee and thy days be short in the land!
madmouth commented on the word befall
also befal in older works
June 18, 2009