▪ I. † ˈbezzle, v. Obs. exc. dial.
Forms: 5 besil, 6 beizle, 7 beezel, bezel, bezzel, bizle, bizel, 8 bezil, bezzil, 7– bezzle.
[Late ME. besil, a. OF. besiler, besillier, beziller, to lay waste, ravage, destroy; shortened form of embesillier: see embezzle.]
General sense: To make away with wastefully.
† 1. trans. To plunder, spoil; to make away with (the property of others). Obs. Cf. embezzle.
| c 1430 Lydg. Bochas v. xvi. (1554) 132 b, That he should haue besiled the Of Chartage. 1594 Carew Tasso (1881) 94 Her sweet showes and faire lookes shall beizle harts. 1611 Beaum. & Fl. Knt. Burn. Pest. i. iii, I have laid up a little for my younger son Michael, and thou think'st to 'bezzle that. c 1612 Fletcher Woman's Prize iv. i. 115/2, I must be shut up and my substance bezel'd. 1720 Stow's Surv. (Strype 1754) II. vi. iii. 626/2 To suffer no manner of person to bezil or purloin..out of the said park any timber. |
2. intr. To make away with a large quantity of food or especially drink; to drink to excess, to guzzle, to revel.
| 1604 Dekker Honest Wh. Wks. 1873 II. 113, I wonder how the inside of a Tauerne lookes now. Oh when shall I bizle, bizle? 1612 T. Taylor Comm. Titus i. 7 (1619) 143 It is too much for a minister to lie bezelling in the delight of his tast. 1633 T. Adams Exp. 2 Peter ii. 12 (1865) 453/1 He that will be sober when others bezzle..is branded with the name of puritan. 1721 Bailey, Bezzle (q.d. to Beastle), to guzzle, tipple, or drink hard. 1875 Whitby Gloss. (E.D.S.), Beb or Bezzle, to drink. |
b. trans. To make away with or consume (drink), waste or squander (one's money). Obs. or dial.
| 1617 J. Taylor (Water P.) Trav. Wks. (1630) 78/2, 13 or 14 brewings haue beene..stayed in the Towne, as not sufficient to be beezeled in the Country. [1775 Collier (Tim Bobbin) Tummus & Meary Wks. (1862) 54, I drank meh Pint o Ele..I cawd for another, on [= and] bezzilt tat too. Ibid. 55 In i'dd'n [= an ye had] bezzilt owey moor brass inney [= than ye] hadd'n. 1875 Lanc. Gloss. 37 Bezzle, to waste, to squander; generally applied to drinking.] |
▪ II. † ˈbezzle, n. Obs. rare.
Also 7 bezell.
[f. prec.]
A hard drinker, a bouser.
| 1592 Nashe P. Penilesse (ed. 2) 12/1 Foule drunken bezzle. 1597 Bp. Hall Sat. v. ii, The swolne bezell at an alehouse fyre, That tonnes in gallons to his bursten paunch. |