An archaic or dialect spelling of 'believe,' meaning to accept something as true or to have faith in someone.
Middle English variant of 'believe,' from Old English 'belyfan.' The extra 'e' is a historical spelling variant that fell out of standard use by the modern era.
This archaic spelling shows how much English spelling has standardized—centuries ago, 'belive,' 'believe,' and other variants all meant the same thing, and writers spelled phonetically, creating a wild West of spelling before dictionaries enforced rules.
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