begem

begem

English

Etymology

be- +‎ gem

Verb

begem (third-person singular simple present begems, present participle begemming, simple past and past participle begemmed)

1. To adorn (as if) with gems.
   • 1748, Laetitia Pilkington, “Queen Mab to Pollio” in Memoirs, Dublin, p. 151,

     Our Grove we illuminate, glorious to see,

     With glittering Glow-worms begemming each Tree;

   • 1821, Percy B[ysshe] Shelley, Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats, […], Pisa, Italy: […] Didot; reprinted London: Noel Douglas […], 1927, OCLC 1156441409, stanza 11:

     One […] threw
     The wreath upon him, like an anadem,
     Which frozen tears instead of pearls begem;

   • 1929, C. K. Scott Moncrieff (translator), The Captive by Marcel Proust, New York: Modern Library, Part I, Chapter 1, p. 3,

     Time was, when a stage manager would spend hundreds of thousands of francs to begem with real emeralds the throne upon which a great actress would play the part of an empress.