English
bewray
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /bɪˈɹeɪ/
Verb

bewray (bewrays, present participle bewraying; past and past participle bewrayed)

  1. (transitive, archaic) To accuse; malign; speak evil of.
  2. (transitive) To reveal, divulge, or make (something) known; disclose.
    • 1594, Christopher Marlowe, Edward II (play), London: William Jones,
      His countenance bewraies he is displeasd.
    1. (transitive) To reveal or disclose and show the presence or true character of, especially if unintentionally or incidentally, or else if perfidiously, prejudicially, or to one's discredit.
      • 1567, Arthur Golding (translator), The XV. Bookes of Ovid, entytuled Metamorphoses, Book 2, lines 539-40, p. 21,
        He tooke hir fast betwéene his armes, and not without his shame,
        Bewrayed plainly what he was and wherefore that he came.
      • 1580, John Lyly, Euphues, London: Gabriell Cawood, p. 100,
        But to put you out of doubt that my wits were not all this while a wol-gathering, I was debating with my selfe whether in loue, it wer better to be constant, bewraying all the counsayles, or secret, being readye euery houre to flinch:
      • c. 1607, William Shakespeare, Coriolanus, Act V, Scene 3,
        Should we be silent and not speak, our raiment
        And state of bodies would bewray what life
        We have led since thy exile.
      • 1905, The Times, 22 August, page 6, col. A
        His very speeches bewray the man – intensely human, frank and single-hearted
    2. (transitive) To expose or rat out (someone).
      • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Gospel of Matthew 26:73,
        And after a while came unto him they that stood by, and said to Peter, Surely thou also art one of them; for thy speech bewrayeth thee.
      • 1846, Introduction to Letter 40 in Henry Ellis (librarian) (editor), Original Letters, Illustrative of English History, Third Series, Volume I, London: Richard Bentley, p. 100,
        While this busy search was diligently applied and put in execution, Humphrey Banaster (were it more for fear of loss of life and goods, or attracted and provoked by the avaricious desire of the thousand pounds) he bewrayed his guest and master to John Mitton, then Sheriff of Shropshire, [...]
      • 1890, The Times, 16 June, page 8, col. A
        I fear that if I was to attempt to detain you at length my speech would bewray me, and you would discover I was not that master of professional allusions which you might expect me to be.
    3. (transitive, obsolete) To expose to harm.
      • c. 1590, Christopher Marlowe, The Jew of Malta, London: Nicholas Vavasour, 1633, Act III,
        Though thou deseruest hardly at my hands,
        Yet neuer shall these lips bewray thy life.
    4. (transitive, obsolete) To expose (a deception).
Synonyms Translations
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Verb

bewray (bewrays, present participle bewraying; past and past participle bewrayed)

  1. (obsolete) To soil or befoul; to beray.
    • 1728, Alexander Pope, The Dunciad, London: A. Dodd, Book 2, p. 18,
      Obscene with filth the varlet lies bewray’d,
      Fal’n in the plash his wickedness had lay’d:
    • 1785, William Cowper, “Tirocinium” in The Task (poem), London: J. Johnson, p. 324,
      Like caterpillars dangling under trees
      By slender threads, and swinging in the breeze,
      Which filthily bewray and sore disgrace
      The boughs in which are bred th’ unseemly race […]


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