bethreatened

== English == === Alternative forms === bethreaten’d (obsolete except archaically) === Etymology === From be- +‎ threatened. === Pronunciation === (Received Pronunciation) enPR: bĭthrĕʹtnd, IPA(key): /bɪˈθɹɛtn̩d/ === Adjective === bethreatened (not comparable) (obsolete, rare) Threatened by mortal danger. 1635, Francis Quarles, Emblems, divine and moral (1818 reprint, Chiswick Press), book III, emblem 11, page 178 My plummet’s light, it cannot sink nor sound; // Oh, shall my rock-bethreaten’d soul be drown’d? === References === “† bethreatened” listed as a derivation of “Be- prefix”, treated on pages 719–723 of volume I (A–B) of A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles [1st ed., 1885]  Be- prefix: — OE. be-, weak or stressless form of the prep. and adv. bí (biᵹ), By. […] 2. Forming intensive verbs, with sense of ‘thoroughly (extension of 1), soundly, much, conspicuously, to excess, ridiculously.’ […] † bethreatened […] 1635 Quarles Emb. iii. xi, My rock-bethreaten’d soul.