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behave

verb
/bɪˈheɪv/UK/bɪˈheɪv/US

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁ep-der. Proto-Indo-European *h₁epsder. Proto-Indo-European *h₁epider. Proto-Indo-European *h₁pi Proto-Germanic *bider. Proto-Germanic *bi- Proto-West Germanic *bi- Proto-Indo-European *kap-der. Proto-Germanic *habjaną Proto-West Germanic *habbjan Proto-West Germanic *bihabbjan Old English behabban Middle English behaven English behave From Middle English behaven, bihabben (“to restrain, behave”), from Old English behabban (“to surround, embrace, hold, contain, hold back, withhold, restrain”), from Proto-West Germanic *bihabbjan, equivalent to be- + have. Cognate with Middle Low German behebben, behāven (“to receive, acquire, reach, keep”), Low German behebben (“to act, behave”), German behaben (“to behave”).

  1. inherited from *bihabbjan✻
  2. inherited from behabban — “to surround, embrace, hold, contain, hold back, withhold, restrain”
  3. inherited from behaven

Definitions

  1. To conduct (oneself) well, or in a given way

    To conduct (oneself) well, or in a given way; to conform.

    • You need to behave yourself, young lady.
    • And the manifest signs that came from heaven unto those that behaved themselves manfully to their honour for Judaism[…]

  2. To act, conduct oneself in a specific manner

    To act, conduct oneself in a specific manner; used with an adverbial of manner.

    • He behaves like a child whenever she's around.
    • How did the students behave while I was gone?
    • My laptop has been behaving erratically ever since you borrowed it.

  3. To conduct, manage, regulate (something).

    • He did behave his anger ere 'twas spent.
    • But who his limbs with labours, and his mind / Behaues with cares, cannot so easie mis.
  4. ›+ 1 more definition

    1. To act in a polite or proper way.

      • His mother threatened to spank him if he didn't behave.
      • One time when Willie was more set on clowning than on learning about Jesus, Miss Helen ordered, "Willie Mack, you stand up against the wall until you learn to behave."

The neighborhood

Derived

behave oneself, behaver, misbehave

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at behave. 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.

01behave02conform03normative04standard05excellence06virtue07morality

A definitional loop anchored at behave. 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 behave

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