All 5 Uses of
beguile
in
Middlemarch
- In fact, much the same sort of movement and mixture went on in old England as we find in older Herodotus, who also, in telling what had been, thought it well to take a woman's lot for his starting-point; though Io, as a maiden apparently beguiled by attractive merchandise, was the reverse of Miss Brooke, and in this respect perhaps bore more resemblance to Rosamond Vincy, who had excellent taste in costume, with that nymph-like figure and pure blindness which give the largest range to choice in the flow and color of drapery.†
Chpt 1beguiled = deceived through charm or enchantment
- He could half understand it: the good-humor, the good looks of elder and younger, and the provision for passing the time without any labor of intelligence, might make the house beguiling to people who had no particular use for their odd hours.†
Chpt 2beguiling = charming or enchanting; or deceiving through charm
- She was an angel beguiled.†
Chpt 2 *beguiled = deceived through charm or enchantment
- But indefinite visions of ambition are weak against the ease of doing what is habitual or beguilingly agreeable; and we all know the difficulty of carrying out a resolve when we secretly long that it may turn out to be unnecessary.†
Chpt 6
- She paused on her way back to talk to old Master Bunney who was putting in some garden-seeds, and discoursed wisely with that rural sage about the crops that would make the most return on a perch of ground, and the result of sixty years' experience as to soils—namely, that if your soil was pretty mellow it would do, but if there came wet, wet, wet to make it all of a mummy, why then— Finding that the social spirit had beguiled her into being rather late, she dressed hastily and went over to the parsonage rather earlier than was necessary.†
Chpt 8beguiled = deceived through charm or enchantment
Definitions:
-
(1)
(beguile) to charm, enchant, or entertain someone; or to deceive -- especially through charm
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
Much less commonly, in classic literature, beguile can mean to "pass time pleasantly."