Frombe-(“on, at, upon”) +fringe.
befringe (third-person singular simple presentbefringes,present participlebefringing,simple past and past participlebefringed)
- Tofurnish oradorn with afringe.
1639,Thomas Fuller, chapter 27, inThe Historie of the Holy Warre[1], Cambridge, page78:[...] women themselves went in armour, (having a brave lasse like anotherPenthesilea for their leader, sobefringed with gold, that they called her Golden-foot) riding astride like men [...]
1737,Alexander Pope,The First Epistle of the Second Book ofHorace, Imitated[2], London: T. Cooper, page23:And when I flatter, let my dirty leaves
(Like Journals, Odes, and such forgotten things
As Eusden, Philips, Settle, writ of Kings)
Cloath spice, line trunks, or flutt’ring in a row,
Befringe the rails of Bedlam and Sohoe.
- 1823,Lord Byron,Don Juan: Cantos IX.—X.—XI., London: John Hunt, Canto 10, stanza 29, p. 32,[3]
- [...] each dress he sported,
- Which set the beauty off in which he glowed,
- As purple cloudsbefringe the sun [...]
1900,Joseph Conrad, chapter 41, inLord Jim[4], Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood, page415:[…] during a year or more, Gentleman Brown’s ship was to be seen, for many days on end, hovering off an isletbefringed with green upon azure, with the dark dot of the mission-house on a white beach[…]
