intransitive verb was or were, been, being be′·ing

1. to exist; live Caesar is no more to happen or occur when will the wedding be? to remain or continue will he be here long? to come to; belong peace be with you to have a place or position the door is on your left
2. as a copula, be links its subject to a predicate nominative, adjective, or pronoun so as to express attribution or identity, and by extension, value, cause, signification, etc.; it is sometimes equivalent to the mathematical sign (=) Mrs. Siddons was an actress; he is handsome; that hat is fifty dollars; let x be y

Etymology: ME been, beon < OE beon: be is a defective verb with parts from three unrelated stems: 1) the IE substantive verb, base *es-, as in am, is, Sans ásmi, asti, Goth im, ist; 2) IE base *wes-, stay, remain, as in was, were, Sans vasati, (he) lingers, stays, Goth wisan, was, wēsum, remain, be; 3) IE base *bheu-, grow, become, (it) occurs, is there, L fieri, as in be, been, Sans bhávati, be, become: see bondage

auxiliary verb

1. used with the past participle of a transitive verb to form the passive voice he will be sued
2. Archaic used with the past participle of certain intransitive verbs to form a perfect tense Christ is risen
3. used with the present participle of another verb to express continuation the player is running with the ball
4. used with the present participle or infinitive of another verb to express futurity, possibility, obligation, intention, etc. he is starting next week, you are to help him