All 3 Uses of
bestow
in
Gulliver's Travels
- The dwarf was soundly whipt, and as a farther punishment, forced to drink up the bowl of cream into which he had thrown me: neither was he ever restored to favour; for soon after the queen bestowed him on a lady of high quality, so that I saw him no more, to my very great satisfaction; for I could not tell to what extremities such a malicious urchin might have carried his resentment.†
Chpt 2 *bestowed = gave
- that we disarmed ourselves of the few abilities she had bestowed;†
Chpt 4
- When the matron Houyhnhnms have produced one of each sex, they no longer accompany with their consorts, except they lose one of their issue by some casualty, which very seldom happens; but in such a case they meet again; or when the like accident befalls a person whose wife is past bearing, some other couple bestow on him one of their own colts, and then go together again until the mother is pregnant.†
Chpt 4bestow = give
Definitions:
-
(1)
(bestow) to give -- typically to present as an honor or give as a gift
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
Much more rarely, in classic literature, bestow can also mean to give more generally or to put, place, or store (to stow) something somewhere.