bespeak

verb

1. (archaic, formal, transitive)To speak about; tell of; relate; discuss.

   “[They] bespoke dangers […] in order to scare the allies.”

2. (transitive)To speak for beforehand; engage in advance; make arrangements for; order or reserve in advance.

   “concluding, naturally, that to gratify his avarice was to bespeak his favour”

   “I walked on into the village, with the desertion of this house upon my mind, and I found the landlord of the little inn, sanding his door-step. I bespoke breakfast, and broached the subject of the house.”

3. (transitive)To stipulate, solicit, ask for, or request, as in a favour.

   “to bespeak a calm hearing”

   “I bespeak your patience in advance.”

4. (archaic, transitive)To forbode; foretell.
5. (archaic, poetic, transitive)To speak to; address.

   “Then ſtaring on her with a ghaſtly Look, / And hollow Voice, he thus the Queen beſpoke.”

   “Spurring his horse, he galloped down to the shore and bespoke them.”

6. (transitive)To betoken; show; indicate; depict; foretell; suggest; allude to.

   “This act bespeaks his kindness.”

   “When the abbot of St. Martin was born, he had so little the figure of a man that it bespake him rather a monster.”

   “Turning her looks unconsciously to that part of the assembly where Douglas leaned, engaged in serious contemplation, Ellina chanced to encounter his eye intently fixed upon her; the expression of which bespeaking at once pity and benevolence, her heart, mortified, reproached her for her lightness.”

   “This new-comer was a man who in any company would have seemed striking.[…]He was smooth-faced, and his fresh skin and well-developed figure bespoke the man in good physical condition through active exercise, yet well content with the world's apportionment.”

   “Are they telling your story vividly, strikingly, in designs that command attention, in colors that bespeak distinction?”

7. (intransitive)To speak up or out; exclaim; speak.

noun

1. (archaic)A request for a specific performance; a benefit performance, by a patron.

   “"By the bye, I've been thinking of bringing out that piece of yours on her bespeak night." "When?" asked Nicholas. "The night of her bespeak. Her benefit night. When her friends and patrons bespeak the play." "Oh! I understand," replied Nicholas.”