v. [f. BE- 2 + CALM v.]

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  1.  trans. To make calm or still; to calm, quiet; fig. to assuage, mitigate, soothe, tranquilize.

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1613.  Bp. Hall, Holy Panegyr., 77. He … hath becalmed the world, and shut the iron gates of warre.

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a. 1649.  Drumm. of Hawth., Poems, Wks. (1711), 38. Thou becalm’st Mind’s easeless anguish.

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1718.  Pope, Odyss., IV. 515. What power becalms the innavigable seas?

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1873.  W. Mayo, Never Again, xxxii. 417. Thy medic touch becalms my throbbing brow.

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  2.  Naut. To shelter from, or deprive (a ship) of, wind; usually in pass. To be becalmed: to lie motionless for want of wind.

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1595.  Maynarde, Drake’s Voy. (1849), 8. Being becalmed under the lee of the land.

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1627.  Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., xiii. 62. To martiall … those squadrons … a good berth or distance from each other, that they becalme not one another.

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1704.  in Lond. Gaz., No. 4033/1. The Charles Gally … being becalmed, was attacked.

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1855.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., IV. 1. The fleet was becalmed off the Godwin Sands.

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  b.  fig.

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1559.  Mirr. Mag., 196 (R.). I and mine becalm’d from hatred’s blast.

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1672.  Dryden, Conq. Granada, I. V. i. 88. ’Twas Life becalm’d, without a gentle Breath.

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