beset

verb

1. (transitive)Senses relating to surrounding.

   “He that hath read Seneca or Boethius, is well provided against any ordinary misfortune; and to have by heart the story of Argalus and Parthenia; the dolorous madrigals of old Plangus in the Arcadia; or the history of Pyramus and Thisbe, is a never failing remedy for the mubble-fubbles: For to be acquainted with sadness, besets familiarity, and familiars never kill one another, unless the devil is in them.”

   ““Nay, for matter o’ that, he never doth any mischief,” said the woman; “but to be sure it is necessary he should keep some arms for his own safety; for his house hath been beset more than once; and it is not many nights ago that we thought we heard thieves about it […]”

   “It may be but an idle whim, but it has always seemed to me, that the extraordinary vacillations of movement displayed by some whales when beset by three or four boats; the timidity and liability to queer frights, so common to such whales; I think that all this indirectly proceeds from the helpless perplexity of volition, in which their divided and diametrically opposite powers of vision must involve them.”

2. (transitive)Senses relating to surrounding.
3. (transitive)Senses relating to surrounding.
4. (archaic, transitive)Senses relating to surrounding.

   “For thou, deere Lord, thou me besett'st; / Thy rodd and thy staff be / To comfort me: […]”

   “Thou me beſetſt behind, before, / and laidſt thine hand on me, / Such knovvledge is for me too ſtrange, / it to attain's^([sic – meaning attainest]) too hie [high].”

   “It was a handsome old stucco hall, very elegantly appointed, for Winter was a bachelor and prided himself on his style; but the place was beset by collieries.”

   “Vegetatively it is the nearest to H. translucens with its oblong-lanceolate leaves, with the margins and keel beset with pellucid teeth, but it differs and is characterised by the greyish-black quadrantly positioned globose flowers; […]”

5. (archaic, transitive)Senses relating to surrounding.
6. (figuratively, transitive)Senses relating to surrounding.

   “Fred Brentnall, in his squeaky lorikeet voice reads to the House Lawson's last two stanzas, just to highlight the danger besetting the colony of Queensland, indeed, the whole country:[…]”

   “Some of Grimsby's other (extraordinarily up-to-date) targets include Donald Trump and Daniel Radcliffe, whose fates here are too breath-catchingly cruel to spoil, and also the admirably game Strong, whose character is beset by a constant stream of humiliations that hit with the force of a jet of … well, you'll see.”

   “Track and platforms have been upgraded, but refurbished trains from Vivarail have been beset by software problems.”

   “In commercial after commercial, humans are oblivious, enfeebled, barely functioning idiots beset by more tasks, stimuli and demands on their time than anyone could reasonably handle.”

7. (archaic, often, transitive)Senses relating to surrounding.
8. (obsolete, transitive)Senses relating to surrounding.
9. (obsolete, transitive)Senses relating to placing or setting.
10. (obsolete, transitive)Senses relating to placing or setting.
11. (obsolete, transitive)Senses relating to placing or setting.
12. (obsolete, transitive)Senses relating to placing or setting.
13. (obsolete, transitive)Senses relating to being appropriate.
14. (intransitive, obsolete)Senses relating to being appropriate.