Definition of "betide"
betide
verb
third-person singular simple present betides, present participle betiding, simple past and past participle betid or betided
(transitive) Often used in a prediction (chiefly in woe betide) or a wish: to happen to (someone or something); to befall.
Quotations
Why wayle we then? why weary we the Gods with playnts, / As if ſome euill were to her betight? / She raignes a goddeſſe now emong the ſaintes, / That whilome was the ſaynt of ſhepheardes light: / And is enſtalled nowe in heauens hight.
1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “Nouember. Aegloga Vndecima.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […]; reprinted as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, The Shepheardes Calender […], London: John C. Nimmo, […], 1890, folio 46, verso
Why, how now, countrymen!Why flock you thus to me in multitudes?What accident's betided to the Jews?
c. 1589–1590, Christopher Marlo[we], edited by Tho[mas] Heywood, The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Ievv of Malta. […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Nicholas Vavasour, […], published 1633, Act I, [scene ii]
But woe betide the wandering wight, / That treads its circle in the night.
1808 February 22, Walter Scott, “Canto Third. The Hostel, or Inn.”, in Marmion; a Tale of Flodden Field, Edinburgh: […] J[ames] Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Company, […]; London: William Miller, and John Murray, stanza XXV, page 157
(intransitive) Chiefly in the third person: to happen; to take place; to bechance, to befall.
Quotations
[W]ipe thou thine eyes, haue comfort, / The direfull ſpectacle of the wracke which touch'd / The very vertue of compaſſion in thee: / I haue with ſuch prouiſion in mine Art / So ſafely ordered, that there is no ſoule / No not ſo much perdition as an hayre / Betid to any creature in the veſſel / Which thou heardſt cry, which thou ſaw'ſt ſinke: […]
1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene ii], page 2, column 1
The death of my ſon betiding while my ſoul was under this anxiety, I thought of nothing but reſigning my dominions, and retiring for ever from the ſight of mankind.
1764, “Onuphrio Muralto”, chapter III, in William Marshal [pseudonym; Horace Walpole], transl., The Castle of Otranto, […], Dublin: […] J. Hoey, […], published 1765, page 80