beckon

verb
/ˈbɛkən/UK

Etymology

From Middle English bekenen, beknen, becnen, beknien, from Old English bēacnian, bēcnian, bīecnan (“to signal; beckon”), from Proto-West Germanic *bauknōn, *bauknijan (“to signal”), from *baukn (“signal; beacon”). Cognate with Old Saxon bōknian, Old High German bouhnen, Old Norse bákna. More at beacon.

  1. inherited from *bauknōn
  2. inherited from bēacnian
  3. inherited from bekenen

Definitions

  1. To wave or nod to somebody with the intention to make the person come closer.

    • His distant friends, he beckons near.
    • It beckons you to go away with it.
  2. To seem attractive and inviting.

    • How the gentle wind / Beckons through the leaves / As autumn colors fall
  3. A sign made without words

    A sign made without words; a beck.

    • At the first beckon.
    • He turn to me, make a beckon with the key in his hand.
  4. + 1 more definition
    1. A children's game similar to hide and seek in which children who have been "caught" may…

      A children's game similar to hide and seek in which children who have been "caught" may escape if they see another hider beckon to them.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at beckon. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01beckon02come03perspective04appearance05seen06saw07wave

A definitional loop anchored at beckon. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

7 hops · closes at beckon

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA