impersonal. To fall to, pertain, belong; to behove, be proper.

transitive. As past tense: possessed, owned. Cf. owe, v. 1. Now Scottish (northern and north-eastern).

To be morally needful or requisite to; to be incumbent, proper, or due.

To be good, fitting, or proper for any one; to become, befit, behove. Usually impersonal.

figurative. To belong or pertain to a person (to do); to pertain, be attached or incident to a thing. Also, to lie (one) in hand to do. Obsolete.

impersonal. With person affected as indirect object. me owe (or oweth): it befits me, it is due or proper to me; it behoves me, I ought. Obsolete.

intransitive. impersonal or with non-referential it as subject. To be incumbent on, be the duty or concern of, be to the interest of, be urgent…

figurative. To rest or be imposed as a burden, charge, obligation, etc. upon a person; to be incumbent or obligatory upon; to press or weigh upon…

transitive with object and infinitive. It is an obligation for (a person to do something).

= behove, v.

Of the wind: to be favourable. Obsolete.

With anticipatory it as subject. transitive. With to-infinitive clause as complement. Frequently with the sense ‘behove, be incumbent on, be the…

transitive. With non-referential it as subject. To behove (a person) to do (something). Obsolete. rare.

Of moral fitness: to be proper to, or incumbent upon, as a duty or task; to be right for.

intransitive. impersonal or with non-referential it as subject. To be incumbent on; = to stand upon —— 5b at phrasal verbs 2. Obsolete.

figurative. to lie with: to be the office or province of (some one) to do something.