Dictionary

becalm

Pronunciation

(British) IPA: /bɪˈkɑːm/

Verb

becalm (becalms, present participle becalming; past and past participle becalmed)

(transitive, obsolete) To make calm or still; make quiet; calm.
- 1589, John Clapham (historian and poet) (translator), A philosophicall treatise concerning the quietnes of the mind, London: Thomas Newman,
  […] there is neither house nor landes, nor great store of gold & siluer, nor honor and noblenes of blood, nor greatnes of office, and estate, nor the grace and vehemencie of speach, which doth so much lighten, and so sweetlie becalme the life of man, as an vndefiled conscience […]
- 1717, Delarivier Manley, Lucius, the First Christian King of Britain, London: John Barber, Act IV, Scene 1, p. 39,
  Almighty Beauty quite becalms my Rage:
  In looking on thee, I forget thy Crimes:
- 1897, Opie Read, Old Ebenezer, Chicago: Laird & Lee, Chapter 6, p. 57,
  “Pardon me,” he said, with a quietness that struck the company with a becalming awe.
(transitive, nautical) To deprive (a ship) of wind, so that it cannot move (usually in passive).
- 1555, Richard Eden (translator), Decades of the New World by Peter Martyr d'Anghiera, London: Edward Sutton, “The seconde v[o]yage to Guinea,” p. 351,
  […] there we were becalmed the .xx. day of Nouember from .vi. of the clocke in the mornynge vntyll foure of the clocke at after none.
- 2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin 2012, p. 214:
  In the following two days, they made fast progress, strong easterly winds driving them down the Channel to where it opened out into the Atlantic; there, they were briefly becalmed.

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