Definition of "be"

As an auxiliary verb:

1. (auxiliary) Used with past participles of verbs to form the passive voice.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Study courses of Esperanto and Ido have been broadcast.

     1995, C. K. Ogden, Psyche: An Annual General and Linguistic Psychology 1920-1952, C. K. Ogden, page 13

2. Used with present participles of verbs to form the continuous aspect.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • In the possibility of radio uses of a constructed language — and such experiments are proving successful—vast sums of money and untold social forces may be involved.

     1995, C. K. Ogden, Psyche: An Annual General and Linguistic Psychology 1920-1952, C. K. Ogden, page 13

3. (formal) Used with to-infinitives of verbs to express intent, obligation, appropriateness, or relative future occurrence.  examples

4. Used with past participles of certain intransitive verbs to form the perfect aspect.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • They are not yet come back.instead of the modern They have not yet come back.

     c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene iv], page 133

   • And he cryed mightily with a strõg voyce, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of deuils […]

     1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Revelation 18:2

   • ‘I wish that he were come to me, / For he will come,’ she said.

     1850, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The Blessed Damozel, ll.67-68

   • He is not here; for he is risen […].

     Matthew 28:6 (various translations, from the King James Version of 1611 to Revised Version of 1881)

   • The King with half the East at heel is marched from lands of morning;

     1922, A. E. Housman, Last Poems XXV, l.13, page 51

   • I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita: Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and, to impress him, he takes on his multi-armed form and says, "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.

     1965, J. Robert Oppenheimer, The Decision to Drop the Bomb

   • His origins are become remote as is his destiny and not again in all the world’s turning will there be terrains so wild and barbarous to try whether the stuff of creation may be shaped to man’s will or whether his own heart is not another kind of clay.

     1985, Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian, page 4

5. (African-American Vernacular, Caribbean, Ireland, auxiliary, not conjugated) To tend to do, often do; marks the habitual aspect.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Women be shoppin’! You cannot stop a woman from shoppin’!

     1996, David Sheffield, Barry W. Blaustein, Tom Shadyac and Steve Oedekerk, screenplay of The Nutty Professor

   • Niggas be tellin' these bitches 'bout business

     2020, Moneybagg Yo, Thug Cry

As a copulative verb:

1. (with there, or dialectally it, as dummy subject) To exist.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Some men there are loue not a gaping Pigge: / Some that are mad, if they behold a Cat: / And others, when the bag-pipe sings i’th nose, / Cannot containe their Vrine for affection.

     c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene i], page 178

   • "There is a sort of domestic enjoyment to be known even in a crowd, and this you had."

     1817 (date written), [Jane Austen], chapter IX, in Persuasion; published in Northanger Abbey: And Persuasion. […], volume IV, London: John Murray, […], 20 December 1817 (indicated as 1818), page 170

   • "There has been lots of commentary on who is staying and who is staying out and this weekend will be the real test," said one senior media buying agency executive who has pulled the advertising for one major client.

     2011 July 6, Mark Sweney, The Guardian

2. Used to indicate that the subject and object are identical or equivalent.  examples

3. Used to indicate that the subject is an instance of the predicate nominal.  examples

4. Used to indicate that the subject has the qualities described by an adjective, prepositional phrase.  examples

5. Used to indicate that the subject has the qualities described by a noun or noun phrase.  examples

6. Used to link a subject to a measurement.  examples

7. (with a cardinal numeral) Used to state the age of a subject in years.  examples

8. (with a dummy subject it) Used to indicate the time of day.  examples

9. (with since) Used to indicate passage of time since the occurrence of an event.  examples

10. (rare and regional, chiefly in the past tense) Used to link two noun clauses, the first of which is a day of the week, recurring date, month, or other specific time (on which the event of the main clause took place), and the second of which is a period of time indicating how long ago that day was.  quotations

    Quotations

    • Miss Lardner (whom you have seen at her cousin Biddulph's) saw you at St James's church on Sunday was fortnight.

      1748, [Samuel Richardson], Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume V, London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; […], page 97

    • And so, without as much as to return home to furnish myself for such a journey, volens, nolens, they prevailed, or rather forced me to come to Dublin to confer with those colonels, and that was the last August was twelvemonth.

      1770, Historical Memoirs of the Irish Rebellion, in the year 1641 […] In a letter to Walter Harris, Esq; [By John Curry.] The fourth edition, with corrections throughout the whole, and large additions, by the author, Ireland, page 186

    • That they were present at the Election in August was Twelvemonth, at which there was the strictest Scrutiny that ever they saw in their Lives, by all the Four Candidates.

      1803, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, Journals of the House of Commons, page 249

    • Allow me to recommend some of the kipper—It was John Hay that catched it Saturday was three weeks.

      1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], chapter V, in Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], pages 79-80

    • “Did there come no young woman here—very young and pretty—Friday was a fortnight, to see Dinah Morris?”

      1859, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], “The Quest”, in Adam Bede […], volume III, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, book fifth, page 53

    • 'Twas there to-morrow is a week.

      1895, Miss M. E. Rope of Suffolk, quoted by Joseph Wright, in The English Dialect Dictionary, page 202

    • I killed my poor father, Tuesday was a week, for doing the like of that.

      1907, John Millington Synge, The Playboy of the Western World, I, page 20

    • Theobald Green gent dead in the Marshalsea in August was twelvemonth / John Grey gent delivered out of the Marshalsea about August last by Mr. Secretary and remains in St. Mary Overies. / John Jacob gent delivered out of the Marsh. the XVII of May was twelvemonth and sent to Bridewell by order of the Council.

      1920 (published), St. George Kieran Hyland, A Century of Persecution Under Tudor and Stuart Sovereigns from Contemporary Records, London, Paul, page 402, quoting an earlier document, Loosley volume 5, no. 28, "List of Prisoners: In Sir W. More's handwriting":

11. (often impersonal, with it as a dummy subject) Used to indicate weather, air quality, or the like.  examples

12. (dynamic / lexical be, especially in progressive tenses, conjugated non-suppletively in the present tense, see usage notes) To exist or behave in a certain way.  quotations  examples

    Quotations

    • "When I get sad, I stop being sad and be awesome instead."

      2006 October 9, Kristin Newman (writer), Barney Stinson (character), How I Met Your Mother, season 2, episode 1

As an intransitive verb:

1. (now usually literary) To exist; to have real existence, to be alive.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Rachel wepynge ffor her chyldren / and wolde nott be comforted becauſe they were not.

     1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], Matthew ij:, folio iij, recto

   • To be, or not to be: that is the question: / Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, / Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, / And by opposing end them?

     c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene iii], page 265

   • […] it were great sottishnesse, and apparent false-hood, to say, that that is which is not yet in being, or that already hath ceased from being.

     1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], page 351

   • There is surely a peece of Divinity in us, something that was before the Elements, and owes no homage unto the Sun.

     1643, Thomas Browne, Religio Medici, II.2, link

   • And after this death there is to be no resurrection. The old man of sin has ceased to be; once crucified, he lives no more. The death is utter; the end complete.

     1893, Andrew Martin Fairbairn, Christ in the Centuries, and Other Sermons, 2nd edition, volume 12, E.P. Dutton & Company, page 116

   • This parrot is no more! It has ceased to be! It's expired and gone to meet its maker! This is a late parrot! It's a stiff! Bereft of life, it rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed it to the perch it would be pushing up the daisies!

     1969 December 7, Monty Python, “Full Frontal Nudity, Dead Parrot sketch”, in Monty Python's Flying Circus, spoken by Mr Praline (John Cleese)

   • The genial hotel manager of the past is no more. Now owner of a trucking concern and living in Belgium, Rusesabagina says the horrors he witnessed in Rwanda "made me a different man."

     2004 December 13, Richard Schickel, “Not Just an African Story”, in Time

2. To remain undisturbed in a certain state or situation.  examples

3. To occupy a place.  examples

4. To occur, to take place.  examples

5. (in perfect tenses) Elliptical form of "be here", "go to and return from" or similar, also extending to certain other senses of "go".  examples

(dialectal, possibly dated) Alternative form of by. Also found in compounds, especially oaths, e.g. begorra.  quotations  examples

The name of the Cyrillic script letter Б / б.  examples