/beset/definition

beset

-) Verb.

-) Pronunciation and accent: bɪsɛt.

-) Etymology: from Old English besettan, analysed into be- (prefix for “around”, “on all sides”) + settan (= to set).

-) Preterite tense: beset. Preterite participle: beset. 

-) Present participle: beseting.

-) 1. To set (a thing) about with ornaments; to surround with accessories; --it is rarely found and only in preterite participle.

-) Synonym: to stud.

-) Translation: entourer, in French; rodear, in Spanish; circondare, in Italian.  

Though his cloaths were exceeding costly, and beset with jewels and precious stones, yet he is said never to have worn one suit twice, nor ever put on again a ring which he had once used.

The Historical Magazine, vol. 2

He had on a gold crown, and a gold-flowered gown, richly beset with jewels.

The New Monthly Magazine

-) 2. (The subject being plural: besetters) to set upon (a person or another animal) on all sides.

-) Synonyms: to assail by stationing themselves round; to surround hostilely or annoyingly.

He broke through the band by whom he was beset, slaying two, and wounding several, and escaped safe to his Castle of Crichton.

Scott… Essay on Border Antiquities

Constantly, on our way, we were beset by men, who wanted to guide us and act as intermediaries in trade.

Thomas Knox… The oriental world

-) Metaphorically: the subject being something incorporeal:

When I mention his weakness, I have allusion to a bizarre old-womanish superstition which beset him.

Edgar Poe

[…] something of unsubstantiality and uncertainty had beset my hopes.

Charlotte Bronte… Jane Eyre

[…] she had not a particle of the pride that beset her mother.

Ainsworth… Mervyn Clitheroe

… the subject is beset with difficulties which, in our present ignorance respecting the ancient local charters of Spain, can never be removed.

Dunham… Europe During the Middle Ages

[…] the ice formed rapidly on the deck, and covered the rigging, so much as to render it difficult to work either the brig or schooner; dangers beset us in every direction.

Charles Wilkes… The United States

Even by daylight our way was beset by difficulties.

Captain Hamilton… Men and manners in America

-) 3. (The subject being plural: besetters) to lay siege to (a public place); surround (a town) with armed forces in order to capture it, or so as to compel surrender.

-) Synonyms: to besiege, beleaguer.

 […] this rude host of natives of the mountains and the woods appeared in the vicinity of Dumbarton, besetting the town.

John Glen… Castle of Dumbarton

-) 4. To occupy or block (a road, gate, or passage), so as to prevent any one from passing, or so as to surprise him.

Two months afterwards, they beset her house with a guard, to prevent her from receiving any succour from friends or servants.

Robert Chambers… Domestic annals

[…] the soldiers having beset all the ways so that no person could pass without much peril.

John Clayton… Personal memoirs…

I am but one man, and we must pass through these mountains that are beset with enemies.

Anna Bray… The Talba

[…] a land thickly beset with treacherous, lurking foes and armed bands of outlying savages.

Isaac Scribner… Laconia

Almost immediately after this victory, Don Lorenzo received notice that the fort of Anchediva was beset by 60 vessels belonging to the Moors and Malabars, well armed and manned with a number of resolute men under the command of a renegado.

Robert Kerr… Voyages and Travels

-) 5. (The subject being plural, but impersonal) to surround annoyingly (something or someone); to stand, lie, or be situated dangerously around.

The African coast from Morocco to the Senegal is singularly perilous, beset with numerous sandbanks, and without either port or shelter.

Robert Jameson… Narrative of… Africa

His ship, beset by ice, and sorely wounded, remained fixed and immovable for two years.

Willis Abbot… American Merchant Ships…

-) Words derived from beset: besetment, besetter, besetting.