Deeper Dive: become

Be*come" , v. t. To suit or be suitable to; to be congruous with; to befit; to accord with, in character or circumstances; to be worthy of, or proper for; to cause to appear well; -- said of persons and things.
It becomes me so to speak of so excellent a poet. Dryden.
I have known persons so anxious to have their dress become them, as to convert it, at length, into their proper self, and thus actually to become the dress.Coleridge. Coleridge.
Be*come" (?), v. i. [imp.Became (?); p. p. Become; p. pr. & vb. n. Becoming.] [OE. bicumen, becumen, AS. becuman to come to, to happen; akin to D. bekomen, OHG.a piquëman, Goth. biquiman to come upon, G. bekommen to get, suit. See Be-, and Come.]
1. To pass from one state to another; to enter into some state or condition, by a change from another state, or by assuming or receiving new properties or qualities, additional matter, or a new character.
The Lord God . . . breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Gen. ii. 7.
That error now which is become my crime. Milton.
2. To come; to get. [Obs.]
But, madam, where is Warwick then become! Shak.
To become of, to be the present state or place of; to be the fate of; to be the end of; to be the final or subsequent condition of.
What is then become of so huge a multitude? Sir W. Raleigh.


-- Webster's unabridged 1913







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