vouchsafe

WOTD - 10 November 2007

English

Infinitive
to vouchsafe

Third person singular
vouchsafes

Simple past
vouchsafed

Past participle
-

Present participle
vouchsafing

to vouchsafe (third-person singular simple present vouchsafes, present participle vouchsafing, simple past and past participle vouchsafed)

To condescendingly grant a right, benefit, outcome, etc.; to deign to acknowledge.

1610 — William Shakespeare, Cymbeline, ii 3 (First Folio)

I haue aſſayl'd her with Muſickes, but ſhe vouchſafes no notice.
1674 — John Milton, Paradise Lost, book V

som great behest from Heav'n
To us perhaps he brings, and will voutsafe
This day to be our Guest.
W.E.B. Du Bois (A date for this quote is being sought):

Hear my cry, O God the Reader; vouchsafe that his book fall not stillborn into the world wilderness.

Condescendingly grant a right