Beckoned

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /ˈbɛkənd/

Definitions

1. To have gestured or signaled for someone's approach or attention, indicating a desire for them to come closer or join To have invited someone over through a physical motion, thereby conveying a message for them to approach you To have used a hand movement or sign to draw someone's presence nearer or to suggest they move closer to you
2. To have signaled an invitation for someone to come closer through a gesture or movement, thereby expressing a desire for their presence To have indicated with a hand or body motion that someone should approach, effectively inviting them to join or engage To have called someone's attention and requested their presence with a subtle sign or signal, encouraging them to move nearer
3. Made a motion with the hand or body to signal someone to come closer

Etymology: "Beckoned" is the past tense of "beckon," and "beckon" has a more interesting ancestry than its gesture suggests: it is the same word family as "beacon." Its earliest Old English form, "bēacnian," meant "to signal," and it sat alongside a root meaning "signal" or "beacon" that ancient Germanic speakers used for a visible sign, such as a fire or a raised object seen from afar. Over time the general sense of signalling narrowed to the specific motion of a hand or head summoning someone closer. The connection to "beacon" is the key to the word's history. A beacon is a light set up to be seen and to call attention, and a beckon is a visible sign made to call a person over. Both grew from the same Germanic root, which is why the two words, though now quite different in use, share a common core: to make something noticed at a distance.

Synonyms: summoned, called

Antonyms: dismissed, ignored