All 3 Uses of
bestow
in
A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens
- No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was o'clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge.†
p. 3.7bestow = give
- He stopped at the outer door to bestow the greetings of the season on the clerk, who, cold as he was, was warmer than Scrooge; for he returned them cordially.†
p. 8.7
- Let it also be borne in mind that Scrooge had not bestowed one thought on Marley, since his last mention of his seven years' dead partner that afternoon.†
p. 15.0 *bestowed = gave
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.