• IPA: /bɪˈθɪŋk/

bethink (bethinks, present participle bethinking; past and past participle bethought)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To think about, to recollect.
2. (reflexive) To think of (something or somebody) or that (followed by clause); to remind oneself, to consider, to reflect upon.
   • c. 1596–1598, William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act I, scene iii], page 165 ↗:

     Bassanio Be aſſured you may.

     Shylock I will be aſſured I may : and that I may be aſſured, I will bethinke mee, may I ſpeake with Antonio (The Merchant of Venice) ?

   • 1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 566:

     One day, among the days, he bethought him of this and fell lamenting for that the most part of his existence was past and he had not been vouchsafed a son, to inherit the kingdom after him, even as he had inherited it from his fathers and forebears; by reason whereof there betided him sore cark and care and chagrin exceeding.

   • 1924, EM Forster, A Passage to India, Penguin 2005, p. 11:

     Having censured the circumcision, she bethought her of kindred topics, and asked Aziz when he was going to be married.

   • 2010, Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22, Atlantic 2011, p. 49:

     However, and just before I was due to take the entrance exam at the age of thirteen, my mother bethought herself that it might be worth taking a look at the place where I was due to be conscripted for the next five formative years.

3. (intransitive) To meditate, ponder; to consider.
4. To determine, resolve.