besought

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Related to besought: discomfit

be·sought

(bĭ-sôt′)

A past tense and past participle of beseech.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

besought

(bɪˈsɔːt)

the past tense and past participle of beseech

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

be•seech

(bɪˈsitʃ)

v. -sought -seeched, -seech•ing. v.t.

1. to implore urgently: They besought us to go at once.

2. to beg eagerly for; solicit.

v.i.

3. to make urgent appeal.

[before 1100; Middle English bisechen, Old English besēcan. See be-, seek]

be•seech′er, n.

be•seech′ing•ly, adv.

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References in classic literature ?

A WOODCHOPPER, who had dropped his axe into a deep pool, besought Mercury to recover it for him.

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Now Chryses had come to the ships of the Achaeans to free his daughter, and had brought with him a great ransom: moreover he bore in his hand the sceptre of Apollo wreathed with a suppliant's wreath, and he besought the Achaeans, but most of all the two sons of Atreus, who were their chiefs.

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"Forgive me," she besought him, "for I am old, and life is gray to friendless girls." The pardon she wanted was for pretending to her daughter that women should act thus.