13 uses
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Definition
to charm, enchant, or entertain someone; or to deceive — especially through charm
- First as she was washing clothes, one of them lay with her in love by the hollow ship, for love beguiles the minds of womankind, even of the upright.Book 15 (76% in)
- Thus for the space of three years she hid the thing by craft and beguiled the minds of the Achaeans; but when the fourth year arrived and the seasons came round, then at the last one of her women who knew all declared it, and we found her unravelling the splendid web.Book 2 (26% in)
- If thou that knowest much lore from of old, shalt beguile with words a younger man, and rouse him to indignation, first it shall be a great grief to him:—and yet he can count on no aid from these who hear him;—while upon thee, old man, we will lay a fine, that thou mayest pay it and chafe at heart, and sore pain shall be thine.Book 2 (45% in)
- 'On this wise they spake and departed; and my heart within me laughed to see how my name and cunning counsel had beguiled them.Book 9 (73% in)
- And now I beseech thee in thy father's name to tell me: for I deem not that I am come to clear-seen Ithaca, but I roam over some other land, and methinks that thou speakest thus to mock me and beguile my mind.Book 13 (75% in)
- Some god beguiled me to wear a doublet only, and henceforth is no way of escape.Book 14 (92% in)
- Now in my father's house was a Phoenician woman, tall and fair and skilled in bright handiwork; this woman the Phoenicians with their sleights beguiled.Book 15 (76% in)
- But Telemachus (for as yet he believed not that it was his father) answered in turn and spake, saying: 'Thou art not Odysseus my father, but some god beguiles me, that I may groan for more exceeding sorrow.Book 16 (41% in)
- And when the wooers miss them and ask thee concerning them, thou shalt beguile them with soft words, saying: ' "Out of the smoke I laid them by, since they were no longer like those that Odysseus left behind him of old when he went to Troy, but they are wholly marred: so mightily hath passed upon them the vapour of fire.Book 16 (59% in)
- Thus she spake, and the steadfast goodly Odysseus rejoiced because she drew from them gifts, and beguiled their souls with soothing words, while her heart was set on other things.Book 18 (65% in)
- ...with Athene's aid the slaying of the wooers, and straightway he spake winged words to Telemachus: 'Telemachus, we must needs lay by the weapons of war within, every one; and when the wooers miss them and ask thee concerning them, thou shalt beguile them with soft words, saying: 'Out of the smoke I laid them by, since they were no longer like those that Odysseus left behind him of old, when he went to Troy, but they are wholly marred, so mightily hath passed upon them the vapour of...Book 19 (1% in)
- Thus for the space of three years I hid the thing by craft and beguiled the minds of the Achaeans.Book 19 (26% in)
- But the wooers on the other side shouted in the halls, and first Agelaus son of Damastor rebuked Athene, saying: 'Mentor, let not the speech of Odysseus beguile thee to fight against the wooers, and to succour him.Book 22 (44% in)
There are no more uses of "beguile" in The Odyssey by Homer (translated by: Butcher & Lang).
Typical Usage
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