v. Forms: 1 behéafdi-an, 2 behæfdien, 2–3 bihaued-en, 3 biheafdin, bihafdi, 3–4 bihefden, 4 biheueden, 4–5 behevede(n, bi-, byhede(n, -heede, 4–6 behede, -heede, 5–6 be-, byhedde, 6 beheadde, 6– behead. [OE. behéafdi-an, f. BE- 3 (with privative force) + héafod HEAD; cf. MHG. behoubeten in same sense, mod.G. enthaupten.]

1

  1.  trans. To deprive (a man or animal) of the head, to decapitate; to kill by cutting off the head.

2

c. 1000.  Ags. Gosp., Matt. xiv. 10. He asende þa and beheafdode Iohannem.

3

c. 1160.  Hatton G., ibid. behæfdede.

4

c. 1205.  Lay., 26296. Þat heo us wulle bihafdi.

5

a. 1225.  Juliana, 40. To bihefden [v.r. beheafdin] pawel.

6

1382.  Wyclif, Matt. xiv. 10. He sente, and bihedide [v.r. byheuedede] Joon in the prisoun.

7

c. 1450.  Lonelich, Grail, xlvii. 155. Beheveded on aftyr anothir.

8

1474.  Caxton, Chesse, 36. Other said that they shold be beheded.

9

1513.  More, Rich. III., Wks. 54/1. To bee byhedded at Pountfreit.

10

1593.  Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., IV. vii. 102. Take him away and behead him.

11

1781.  Gibbon, Decl. & F., II. xlvi. 719. A great number of the captives were beheaded.

12

1873.  H. Spencer, Stud. Sociol., vii. 156. We beheaded 2000 fellahs, throwing their headless corpses into the Nile.

13

  fig.  1594.  Hooker, Eccl. Pol., IV. xiv. § 7. To repair the decays thereof by beheading superstition.

14

1726.  M. Henry, Wks., II. 370. It adds to our grief to see a family beheaded.

15

  2.  Of things: To deprive of the top or foremost part. rare.

16

1579.  Fulke, Heskins’ Parl., 271. Maister Heskins beheadeth the sentence.

17

1796.  Marshall, Garden., § 20 (1813), 400. Graffs of last year, cut to a few eyes, behead as at 98.

18

Mod.  Beheaded and curtailed words.

19