bedizen

verb

be·di·zen | \ bi-ˈdī-zᵊn ,

-ˈdi- , bē- \

bedizened; bedizening; bedizens

Definition of bedizen

transitive verb

: to dress or adorn gaudily

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Did You Know?

Bedizen doesn’t have the flashy history you might expect - its roots lie in the rather quiet art of spinning thread. In times past, the spinning process began with the placement of fibers (such as flax) on an implement called a "distaff"; the fibers were then drawn out from the distaff and twisted into thread. "Bedizen" descends from the older, now obsolete, verb "disen," which meant "to dress a distaff with flax" and which came to English by way of Middle Dutch. The spelling of "disen" eventually became "dizen," and its meaning expanded to cover the "dressing up" of things other than distaffs. In the mid-17th century, English speakers began using "bedizen" with the same meaning. The figurative use in our second quotation is also well-established. Such uses date to the late 18th century.

Examples of bedizen in a Sentence

an elderly actress bedizening herself with makeup and jewelry

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Last Updated

21 Aug 2018

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Time Traveler for bedizen

The first known use of bedizen was in 1661

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