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Bevʹy

.

A bevy of ladies. A throng or company; properly applied to roebucks, quails, and pheasants. Timid gregarious animals, in self-defence, go down to a river to drink in bevies or small companies. Ladies, from their timidity, are placed in the same category (Italian, bevere, to drink).

“And upon her deck what a bevy of human flowers—young women, how lovely!—young men, how noble!”—De Quincey: Dream-fugue.

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Betty
Betubium
Between
Betwixt and Between
Beurre
Beuves
Bever
Bevil
Bevis
Bevoriskius
Bevy
Bezaliel
Bezonian
Bheem or Bhîma
Biæum
Bianca
Bianchi
Bias
Biberius Caldius Mero
Bible
Bible-backed