[f. prec. sb.]
† 1. trans. To beacon up: to raise or kindle as a beacon. Obs.
1644. Milton, Areop., Wks. 1738, I. 156. We have lookt so long upon the blaze that Zuinglius and Calvin have beacon’d up to us.
1651. Biggs, New Disp., Pref. 13. A greater light in Physick then what Galen has beaconed up to us.
2. To light up, as a beacon-fire does.
1803. Campbell, Lochiel’s Warning (1846), 94. ’Tis the fire-shower of ruin … that beacons the darkness of Heaven.
1813. Scott, Rokeby, V. xxxvii. Where far the mansion of her sires Beaconed the dale with midnight fires.
b. fig. To give light and guidance to; to lead.
1835. Browning, Paracels., Wks. I. 37. Some one truth would dimly beacon me … Into assured light.
1856. R. Vaughan, Mystics (1860), I. 11. Whose far glories beacon him … as he rises step by step.
3. To furnish with beacons; to mark the position of, by beacons or a beacon. Occas. with off, out.
1821. Shelley, Epipsych., 148. My wisdom … bids me dare Beacon the rocks on which high hearts are wreckt.
1860. Merc. Mar. Mag., VII. 174. The … Channel … is as good as buoyed and beaconed by the … Rock and … Reefs.
1883. Daily News, 12 June, 5/2. The Boers have beaconed out a boundary.
1883. Pall Mall Gaz., 16 Nov., 2/1. The boundary has never been beaconed off.
4. intr. To shine like a beacon.
1821. Shelley, Adonais, lv. The soul of Adonais, like a star, Beacons from the abode where the Eternal are.
1864. N. & Q., V. 210. Arcturus beaconed from his zenith tower to Cepheus.
