be

be [bē; bi]

vi.

was or were, been, being [ME been, beon < OE beon: be is a defective verb with parts from three unrelated stems: 1) the IE substantive verb, base * es-, as in AM, IS¹, Sans ásmi, asti, Goth im, ist; 2) IE base * wes-, stay, remain, as in WAS, WERE, Sans vasati, (he) lingers, stays, Goth wisan, was, wēsum, remain, be; 3) IE base * bheu-, grow, become, (it) occurs, is there, L fieri, as in BE, BEEN, Sans bhávati, be, become: see BONDAGE]

I as a substantive verb, be means:

1. to exist; live [Caesar is no more]

2. to happen or occur [when will the wedding be?]

3. to remain or continue [will he be here long?]

4. to come to; belong [peace be with you]

5. to have a place or position [the door is on your left]

II as a copula, be links its subject to a predicate nominative, adjective, or pronoun so as to express attribution or identity, and by extension, value, cause, signification, etc.; it is sometimes equivalent to the mathematical sign (=) [Mrs. Siddons was an actress; he is handsome; that hat is fifty dollars; let x be y]

v.aux.

1. used with the past participle of a transitive verb to form the passive voice [he will be sued]

2. Archaic used with the past participle of certain intransitive verbs to form a perfect tense [Christ is risen]

3. used with the present participle of another verb to express continuation [the player is running with the ball]

4. used with the present participle or infinitive of another verb to express futurity, possibility, obligation, intention, etc. [he is starting next week, you are to help him] Be is conjugated in the present indicative: (I) am, (he, she, it) is, (we, you, they) are; in the past indicative: (I, he, she, it) was, (we, you, they) were; archaic forms are (thou) art, wert, wast; the present subjunctive is be, the past subjunctive were

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be off!

Archaic go away!