begrime

Etymology

of gardening gloves begrimed with soil.]] From be- (prefix meaning ‘about; abundantly; all around; all over’) + grime (“to cake with dirt”).

verb

  1. (transitive) To ingrain grime or dirt which is difficult to remove into (something); also (more generally), to make (something) dirty; to soil.
    The smoke of the pine-wood fires which at night were kept continually burning around them. This had most effectually begrimed their features, and their dresses had not scrupled to partake of the same colouring. 1835, William Gilmore Simms, chapter VII, in The Partisan: A Tale of the Revolution.[…], volume I, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers,[…], →OCLC, page 78
    [H]e should forthwith reform his manners, purify himself, and discontinue the vile, filthy habit of snuff-taking—a habit which, to use her own words, begrimeth the face, spoileth the form of the nose—Heaven bless the mark!—destroyeth the voice, and eventually undermineth the constitution. 1837, “an old forest ranger”, “The Great Western Jungle”, in Theodore Hook, editor, The New Monthly Magazine and Humorist, volume LI, part 3, number CCIII, London: Henry Colburn,[…], →OCLC, page 338
    collowest] i.e. begrimest, blackenest: […] Collow is smut from burnt coals. The play was originally attributed to Middleton, but Lording Barry, Thomas Dekker, and John Marston have also been suggested as authors.] [1840, Alexander Dyce, “The Family of Love”, in Thomas Middleton, The Works of Thomas Middleton,[…], volume II, London: Edward Lumley, →OCLC, act III, scene iii, footnote z, page 152

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