To dress or clothe; to cover with clothing or garments.
From be- prefix plus clothe. Clothe comes from Old English clāth, from the root of cloth (the fabric). The be- prefix creates the sense of 'to dress' or 'to cover with clothes,' emphasizing the covering action.
Beclothe is probably the most literary of these be- verbs, and it appears constantly in Victorian and Romantic poetry to mean 'to dress' or 'to clothe.' Poets loved the sonorous, formal sound of be- verbs, which is why 'beclothe' survived in literary circles even as most other be- words fell out of everyday use.
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