bewray

Etymology 1

From Middle English bewraien, bewreyen, biwreyen, from Old English *bewrēġan, from Proto-Germanic *biwrōgijaną (“to speak about; tell on; inform of”), equivalent to be- + wray. Cognate with Old Frisian biwrōgja (“to disclose, reveal”), Dutch bewroegen (“to blame; accuse”), Middle Low German bewrȫgen (“to accuse; complain about; punish”), Old High German biruogen (“to disclose, reveal”), Modern German berügen (“to defraud”).

verb

1. (transitive, archaic) To accuse; malign; speak evil of.
2. (transitive) To reveal, divulge, or make (something) known; disclose.
   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.
      He tooke hir fast betwéene his armes, and not without his shame, Bewrayed plainly what he was and wherefore that he came. 1567, Arthur Golding, transl., The XV. Bookes of P. Ouidius Naso, entytuled Metamorphosis, Book 2, lines 539-40, p. 21
      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: 1580, John Lyly, Euphues and his England, London: Gabriell Cawood, page 100
      Why, Warwick, canst thou speak against thy Liege, Whom thou obeyedst thirty and six years, And not bewray thy treason with a blush? 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, part III
      And the lily gleam white, where the lakelets flow, And the trailing arbutus shroud its grace, Till fragrance bewrayed its hiding-place, 1841, Lydia Sigourney, Pocahontas and Other Poems (New York edition), Native Scenery, page 50
      His very speeches bewray the man – intensely human, frank and single-hearted 22 August 1905, The Times, page 6, col. A
   2. (transitive) To expose or rat out (someone).
      1846, Introduction to Letter 40 in Henry Ellis (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, …
      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. 16 June 1890, The Times, page 8, col. A
      One Scripture rule, at least, was unforgot; / He hid the outcast, and bewrayed him not; […] 1892, John Greenleaf Whittier, “The Pennsylvania Pilgrim”, in The Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier[…], volumes I (Narrative and Legendary Poems), Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin and Company[…], →OCLC, page 328
   3. (transitive, obsolete) To expose to harm.
   4. (transitive, obsolete) To expose (a deception).
      They place affection by times, by pollicy, by appoyntment, if they frowne, who dares call them vnconstant, if bewray secrets, who will tearme them vntrue, if fall to other loues, who trembles not, if he call them vnfaithfull. 1581, John Lyly, Campaspe: Played Beefore the Queenes Maiestie on Twelfe Day at Night
      For I was sore afraid of my Brothers, because they had all conspired together to kill him with the Sword that should bewray that Secret. 1731, The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, the Sons of Jacob, page 74
      For to discover this matter the better, he saith consequently: That the nature of virtuous men and those who have noble bringing up, is directly opposite unto that of long-tongued persons; and joining the reasons by which a man ought not to bewray his secret, together with those evils and inconveniences which curiosity and much babble do bring, and confirming all by fine similitudes and notable examples: .... 1927, Plutarch (Philemon Holland), Plutarch's Moralia - Part 1, page 244

Etymology 2

Variant of beray.

verb

1. (obsolete) To soil or befoul; to beray.