How do you use the word "beset" in a sentence?

Q: How do you use the word "beset" in a sentence?

Here are real-life examples of using "beset": The problem was beset with difficulties. Young people fled cities beset by terrorism, the economic crisis and drugs.

Beset Meaning

/bɪˈsɛt/

Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

Definition

verbSenses relating to surrounding.

verbSenses relating to surrounding., To assail or attack (someone) from all sides; to set about.

Sentence Examples

The problem was beset with difficulties.

Young people fled cities beset by terrorism, the economic crisis and drugs.

The company is still beset by technical challenges.

Synonyms & Antonyms

Synonyms:

chevy provoke plague

Antonyms:

None

CEFR Practice Quiz

The small village was ____ by constant storms and flooding last winter.

CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)

The project was ____ by many technical problems from the very start.

Word Origin & History

From Middle English besetten, bisetten (“to besiege, blockade; to fill, occupy; to harass, beset; to allot, bestow; to arrange, manage; to place, set; to provide for; to treat in a certain way”), from Old English besettan, bisettan (“to surround, beset; to set near; etc.”), from Proto-West Germanic *bisattjan, from Proto-Germanic *bisatjaną (“to fill, occupy”), from *bi- (prefix meaning ‘at; by’) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁epi (“at; near; on”)) + *satjaną (“to place down, set”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sed- (“to sit”)). By surface analysis, be- (prefix meaning ‘around; by, close to, near, next to’) + set. cognates * Danish besætte (“to occupy; obsess”) * Dutch bezetten (“to sit in; occupy; fill”) * German besetzen (“to seize; occupy; garrison”) * German Low German besetten (“to occupy”) * Saterland Frisian besätte (“to occupy”) * Swedish besätta (“to fill; occupy; beset”) * West Frisian besette (“to occupy”)

Literary Quotations & Historical Citations

"He that hath read Seneca or Boethius, is well provided against any ordinary misfortune; and to have by heart the story of Argalus and Parthenia; the dolorous madrigals of old Plangus in the Arcadia; or the history of Pyramus and Thisbe, is a never failing remedy for the mubble-fubbles: For to be acquainted with sadness, besets familiarity, and familiars never kill one another, unless the devil is in them." — 1654, Edmund Gayton, Festivous notes on the history and adventures of the renowned Don Quixote:

"“Nay, for matter o’ that, he never doth any mischief,” said the woman; “but to be sure it is necessary he should keep some arms for his own safety; for his house hath been beset more than once; and it is not many nights ago that we thought we heard thieves about it […]" — 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:

"It may be but an idle whim, but it has always seemed to me, that the extraordinary vacillations of movement displayed by some whales when beset by three or four boats; the timidity and liability to queer frights, so common to such whales; I think that all this indirectly proceeds from the helpless perplexity of volition, in which their divided and diametrically opposite powers of vision must involve them." — 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Sperm Whale’s Head”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 369:

"For thou, deere Lord, thou me besett'st; / Thy rodd and thy staff be / To comfort me: […]" — a. 1587 (date written), Philip Sidney, “Psalm XXIII. Dominus regit me.”, in The Psalmes of David […], London: From the Chiswick Press by C[harles] Whittingham, for Robert Triphook, […], published 1823, →OCLC, page 37:

"Thou me beſetſt behind, before, / and laidſt thine hand on me, / Such knovvledge is for me too ſtrange, / it to attain's^([sic – meaning attainest]) too hie [high]." — 1648, Zachary Boyd, “Psal[m] CXXXIX. [Verse 5.]”, in The Psalmes of David in Meeter: With the Prose Interlined, Glasgow: […] [T]he heires of George Anderson, →OCLC, signature Y2, recto:

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