Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To happen.

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

  • transitive verb obsolete To happen to.

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

  • verb transitive, obsolete To happen to.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From be- +‎ happen, analogous to befall.

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Examples

  • And a good man may behappen to be all as much as a good master.

    Anna St. Ives Thomas Holcroft 1777

  • So that if your noble onnur will but think of that, why thinks may behappen to begin to take a new turn, and there may be mirth and merry days again at Wenbourne Hill.

    Anna St. Ives Thomas Holcroft 1777

  • So mind what I do say to ee; and tell 'em that they may a behappen to find that your father is somebody, and that you are his son.

    Anna St. Ives Thomas Holcroft 1777

  • And ast for law, why he that has a got the longest head will have a most on't for money: and he that has a got the longest purse will behappen not to be the first to cry peccavi.

    Anna St. Ives Thomas Holcroft 1777

  • Whereof thof a man be but a Mister, a may behappen to buy and sell a knight of the shire: that is under favour, and a savin and exceptin of your onnurable onnur.

    Anna St. Ives Thomas Holcroft 1777

  • So that forsooth, some folks may behappen to cry peccavi.

    Anna St. Ives Thomas Holcroft 1777

  • I wus about to paradventer to proposal to your onnur that, if thinks might behappen to come to pass in the manner of mercifool lovin kindness and gracious condysension, the wherewithalls should a be forth cummin to the tune of fifty thousand pounds: that is with the betokenin of all proper securities of parchments and deeds and doosoors to be first signed and stipilated, as heretofore have bin on like future occasions.

    Anna St. Ives Thomas Holcroft 1777

  • Whereof the first frost that brings a white crow may, in sitch a case, behappen to shew him his betters.

    Anna St. Ives Thomas Holcroft 1777

  • And where now might Timothy Tipkin sifflicate that it may behappen to be for to come from?

    Anna St. Ives Thomas Holcroft 1777

  • Where one fifty thousand pound be a forth cummin from, another may a behappen to be found.

    Anna St. Ives Thomas Holcroft 1777

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