v.; also 7 begon. [Really two words be gone (cf. be off), long used without analysis in the imperative as expressing a single notion, and so written as one word; recent writers have extended this, without any good reason, to the infinitive. But cf. the similar beware.]
a. c. 1370. Robt. Cicyle, 52. He stode, And callyd the portar, ‘Gad’lyng, begone!’
1610. Histrio-m., III. 99. Begone yee greedy beefe-eaters.
1716. Addison, Ovid’s Met., II. Misc. Wks. (1726), I. 170 (J.).
| Begone! the goddess cries with stern disdain, | |
| Begone! nor dare the hallow’d stream to stain. |
1853. Arab. Nts. (Rtldg.), 89. Begone, and remember I am impatient for your return.
b. [1660. Jer. Taylor, Worthy Commun., i. 61. He bad him be gon and fly from his Fathers wrath.]
1816. J. Wilson, City of Plague, I. i. 265. Let us begone, the day is wearing fast.
1865. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt. (1873), II. 135. Kaiser’s Ambassador … is angrily ordered to begone.
¶ Used for the word or command ‘Begone!’
1820. Scott, Abbot, xi. My Lady made me brook the ‘Begone.’
¶ Formerly sometimes for be (= been) gone.
1440. J. Shirley, Dethe K. James (1818), 17. The Kyng … denyd that they had all begone [been gone].
