To rob or strip someone of something; an archaic or dialectal term meaning to dispossess or deprive.
From Middle English 'beroben,' possibly influenced by the prefix 'be-' (meaning 'to cover' or 'to make') combined with 'rob,' though the exact formation is disputed.
The 'be-' prefix in English is a linguistic fossil—words like 'bedazzle,' 'befuddle,' and 'berob' show an old pattern of intensifying verbs that mostly disappeared from modern English!
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