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Behest vs Beck - What's the difference?

behest | beck | Related terms |

As nouns the difference between behest and beck

is that behest is a command, bidding; sometimes also, an authoritative request while beck is a stream or small river.

As verbs the difference between behest and beck

is that behest is to promise; vow while beck is to nod or motion with the head.

behest

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A command, bidding; sometimes also, an authoritative request.
  • * 1977 , , Penguin Classics, p. 278:
    • Paul did not dare pronounce, let matters rest, / His master having given him no behest .
  • * Sir Walter Scott
    • to do his master's high behest
  • * 2007 , Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day :
    • And young Mr. Fleetwood Vibe was here at the behest of his father, Wall Street eminence Scarsdale Vibe, who was effectively bankrolling the Expedition.
  • * 2009 , “What a waste”, The Economist , 15 Oct 2009:
    • the House of Representatives will try to water down even this feeble effort at the behest of the unions whose members enjoy some of the most lavish policies.
  • * 2011 , Owen Gibson, The Guardian , 24 Mar 2011:
    • The Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, is to meet with the BBC director general, Mark Thompson, at the behest of the Premier League in a bid to resolve their long-running feud.
  • A vow; a promise.
  • * Paston
    • The time is come that I should send it her, if I keep the behest that I have made.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To promise; vow.

    • Anagrams

    *

    beck

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) . Cognate with low German bek or beck

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (Norfolk, Northern English dialect) A stream or small river.
  • * Drayton
    • The brooks, the becks , the rills.
    Synonyms
    * brook * burn * creek * stream

    Etymology 2

    A shortened form of (beckon), from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A significant nod, or motion of the head or hand, especially as a call or command.
    • To be at the beck and call of someone.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (archaic) To nod or motion with the head.
  • * Shakespeare
    • When gold and silver becks me to come on.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1896, author=Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr, title=Winter Evening Tales, chapter=, edition= citation
    • , passage="I'll buy so many acres of old Scotland and call them by the Lockerby's name; and I'll have nobles and great men come bowing and becking to David Lockerby as they do to Alexander Gordon. }}
  • *{{quote-book, year=1881, author=Various, title=The Best of the World's Classics, Vol. V (of X) - Great Britain and Ireland III, chapter=, edition= citation
    • , passage=The becking waiter, that with wreathed smiles, wont to spread for Samuel and Bozzy their "supper of the gods," has long since pocketed his last sixpence; and vanished, sixpence and all, like a ghost at cock-crowing. }}

    Etymology 3

    See back.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A vat.

    • Etymology 4

    Noun

    (en noun)
    • (Spenser)