bedim, v.
(bɪˈdɪm)
Also 6–7 bedym, -dymn.
[f. be- + dim.]
trans. To make dim, cover with dimness, becloud.
| 1583 Stanyhurst æneis iii. (Arb.) 84 Soomtyme owt it bolcketh from bulck clowds grimly bedimmed. 1610 Shakes. Temp. v. i. 41, I haue bedymn'd The Noone-tide Sun. 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 75 The surface [is] soon bedimmed on exposure to the atmosphere. |
b. esp. the eyesight.
| 1811 Byron Curse Minerva 86 Celestial tears bedimm'd her large blue eye. 1850 Blackie æschylus II. 24 A tearful cloud My woeful sight bedims. |
c. fig. the mind, mental vision, memory, etc.
| [1566 Gascoigne Jocasta Wks. (1587) 85 Those raging storms of wrath That so bedym the eyes of thine intent.] 1816 J. Wilson City of Plague ii. iv. 179 Nor can the shadow of this passing world Bedim thy holy spirit. 1817 Coleridge Biog. Lit. 93 The detestable maxims..of the late French despotism had already bedimmed the public recollections of democratic phrensy. 1849 Hare Par. Serm. II. 169 Fear so troubles and bedims and confounds the mind. |