The AI-powered English dictionary
third-person singular simple present beknows, present participle beknowing, simple past beknew, past participle beknown
(transitive) To know about; have knowledge of; recognise; understand; be aware (of); be knowledgeable about. quotations examples
At length Alkimedon, his friend and comrade, right beknew it; [...]
1856, Homer, Francis William Newman, The Iliad of Homer
Do not think my reverend father that I am beknowing to all the affairs of the savages, there is a great deal wanting: they come to us about the affairs of their conscience, but as to the rest they consult us but little.
1859, United States Congress, Congressional edition - Page 354
[...] when I went bolt into his dressing-room, not beknowing he was in it — why it is not likely, sir, that he comes again.
1888, The Argosy, volume 46
Know I as soon as dark's dreams begin Snared is my heart in a nightmare's gin; Never from terror I out may win; So dawn and dusk I pine, peak, thin, Scarcely beknowing t'other from which—My great grandam—She was a Witch.
1922, Walter De la Mare, Down-adown-derry: a book of fairy poems
(transitive) To acknowledge; own; confess. quotations examples
For vnto the no nombre can be laydfor to preſcrybe remiſſions off offenceIn hertes retornd, as thow thy ſellff haſt ſayd.And I, beknow my Fawt my neclegence [...]
c. 1527–1542, Thomas Wyatt, “Penitential Psalms”, in Egerton MS 2711, page 93r