bereave
verbEtymology
Inherited from Middle English bireven, from Old English berēafian (“to bereave, deprive of, take away, seize, rob, despoil”), from Proto-Germanic *biraubōną, and Old English berēofan (“to bereave, deprive, rob of”); both equivalent to be- + reave. Cognate with Dutch beroven (“to rob, deprive, bereave”), German berauben (“to deprive, rob, bereave”), Danish berøve (“to deprive of”), Norwegian berøve (“to deprive”), Swedish beröva (“to rob”), Gothic 𐌱𐌹𐍂𐌰𐌿𐌱𐍉𐌽 (biraubōn).
- inherited from *biraubōną✻
- inherited from bireven
Definitions
To deprive by or as if by violence
To deprive by or as if by violence; to rob; to strip.
- Madam, you have bereft me of all words,
- bereft of him who taught me how to sing
To take away by destroying, impairing, or spoiling
To take away by destroying, impairing, or spoiling; take away by violence.
- All your interest in those territories / Is utterly bereft you; all is lost.
- […] shall move you to bereave my life.
To deprive of power
To deprive of power; prevent.
›+ 2 more definitionsshow fewer
To take away someone or something that is important or close
To take away someone or something that is important or close; deprive.
- Death bereaved him of his wife.
- The family has been recently bereaved.
- The castaways were bereft of hope.
To destroy life
To destroy life; cut off.
The neighborhood
- neighborreave
Derived
Vish — recursive loop
A definitional loop anchored at bereave. 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.
A definitional loop anchored at bereave. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.
9 hops · closes at bereave
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