Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Bestead

Bestead ({not transcribed}) , transitive verb

[Prefix be- + stead a place.]

1.
To put in a certain situation or condition; to circumstance; to place. [Obsolete; Only in p. p.]
They shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry:... and curse their king and their God. — Is. viii. 21
Many far worse bestead than ourselves. — Barrow

[Only in p. p.]

2.
To put in peril; to beset. — Chaucer
3.
To serve; to assist; to profit; to avail. — Milton