to make someone a duke or to treat them as if they were a duke; to elevate in status or rank.
From Middle English be- (prefix meaning 'to cause to be') + duke (from Old French duc, from Latin dux meaning 'leader'). The be- prefix was productively used in Early Modern English to create verbs from nouns and adjectives.
The 'be-' prefix was incredibly productive in Shakespeare's time—writers would stick it on almost any word to create new verbs, which is why we see creative coinages like this. Most of these verbs didn't survive, but some like 'belittle' and 'bemoan' made it into modern English.
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