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Befall vs Behold - What's the difference?

befall | behold |

In transitive terms the difference between befall and behold

is that befall is to happen to while behold is to see, or to look at.

As verbs the difference between befall and behold

is that befall is to happen while behold is to see, or to look at.

As a noun befall

is case; instance; circumstance; event; incident; accident.

befall

English

Verb

  • To happen.
  • To happen to.
  • Temptation befell me.
  • * Shakespeare
  • I beseech your grace that I may know / The worst that may befall me.
  • * {{quote-web, date=2013-04-15
  • , year= , first= , last= , author=Walter Russell Mead , authorlink= , title=The Wreck of the Euro , site=The American Interest citation , archiveorg= , accessdate=2013-04-16 , passage=As we’ve said before, with the exception of communism itself, the euro has been the biggest economic catastrophe to befall the continent (and the world) since the 1930s. }}

    Derived terms

    * befalling * misbefall

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Case; instance; circumstance; event; incident; accident.
  • * 1495 , William Caxton, Vitas Patrum :
  • Or he had tolde al his befall .
  • * 1990 , India. Parliament. House of the People, India. Parliament. Lok Sabha, Lok Sabha debates :
  • This is proposed to be done by moving necessary amendment in this befall to the Finance Bill.
  • * 1994 , Socialist Party (India), Janata: Volume 49 :
  • He said "I would advise people to cultivate frugal habits. I will not commit the crime of making them helpless by saying that they have no responsibility whatever in the befall of calamities like old age, illness, accident, etc. [...]"
  • * 1996 , Thomas Pfau, Rhonda Ray Kercsmar, Rhetorical and cultural dissolution in romanticism :
  • [...], the word "care" asserting itself subliminally in somewhat the same way that "fall" does in the "befall " of "Infant Joy."

    References

    * * English irregular verbs ----

    behold

    English

    Verb

  • To see, or to look at.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8 , passage=The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again;

    Usage notes

    Rarely used in informal speech. The past participle beholden now has a meaning detached from the other forms of the word.

    Synonyms

    * get a load of

    Derived terms

    * beholder ** eye of the beholder

    References

    * * English irregular verbs ----