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Glossary (words starting with H)

ha an exclamation of amusement, irritation or triumph

ha a versatile exclamation which can express surprise, wonder, joy, suspicion, indignation, etc., depending on the speaker’s intonation (OED int, 1)

ha' have

ha' to have

habiliments clothes

habit stage costume

habit a costume appropriate to a particular function or office, a uniform expressing a particular rank or position in society

habit garment

habit clothing, disguise

habit clothing

habitation residence

habited dressed

habitual inherent, native (OED adj. 1); customary (OED adj. 2)

hackling literally the combing of hemp or flax, but often used figuratively to suggest taunting or irritating someone, sometimes physically

hackney-jade an inferior kind of hired horse: a ‘hackney’ is a horse kept for hire (OED n. 2), and ‘jade’ is a contemptuous word for a horse

hale harry, molest (OED v1. 2b)

hale drag in violently, pull in (OED v1. 2a)

half-crown silver coin worth two shillings sixpence (£0.125 in decimal currency)

half-part share-and-share alike; divide equally between

half-pined half-starved, famished

halloo exclamation to incite dogs to the chase

hallowed sacred, treated as holy

halt limp

halter fetter, bridle; hang

ham hollow at the back of the knee, or the back of the thigh

hamper obstruct, impede

hams backs of the thighs and buttocks

hanch a variant of 'haunch': 'the part of the body, in men and quadrupeds, lying between the last ribs and the thigh' (OED haunch n, 1a)

hand signature

hand handwriting (the word ‘hand’ influences the rest of the line, in which the handwriting is imagined as a physical hand that thrusts Eleanor away)

hand handwriting (OED n. 16)

hand part, share (OED n. 3b)

hand lay hold of, grasp (OED v. 1)

hand over head recklessly (OED, hand over head adv. phr.)

handicrafts handicraftsman, artisans, men skilled in manual trades

handicraftsman someone with a manual occupation

handiworks work with the hands, practical work

handle manage; deal with (with a sexual pun deriving from the oldest meaning of ‘handle’: ‘to touch or feel with the hands, to pass the hand over, stroke with the hand’ [OED v1. 1a])

handle manage, control

handling touching, feeling (OED n. 1a); see also Williams, 2: 642-3, who quotes Shakespeare, Measure for Measure (King’s Men, c. 1604), in which Escalus proposes to question Isabella, ‘You shall see how I’ll handle her’, to which Lucio responds, ‘Not better than he, by her own report’ (5.1.270-1)

handmaid attendant, (female) servant

hands signatures

handsel to use something for the first time, with befitting ceremony (OED v. 2)

handsel first experience, taken as auspicious of what is to follow (OED n. 4)

handsome in a woman usually denotes a fine figure or a stately kind of beauty

handsome dextrous, skilful

handsome considerable

handsome clever, skilful (OED adj. 2b); seemly (OED adj. 3: said sarcastically); attractive (OED adj. 6a)

handsome attractive; skilful

handsome proper, seemly (OED adj. 3)

handsome attractive

handsome sizable, considerable, moderately large, good-sized (OED `handsome' a/adv, 4a)

handsomely cleverly, skilfully

handsomely skilfully (OED adv. 3)

handsomely courteously (but with a suggestion of cunningly)

handsomely carefully, gently (OED 3b)

handsomely courteously (OED 5a); liberally (5b); cleverly, skilfully

handy-dandy A children's game in which a small object is shaken between the hands by one of the players, and, the hands being suddenly closed, the other player is required to guess in which hand the object remains. The rhyming words seem to offer a choice, but are indifferent which of two things is chosen; in that case, the words mean ‘Choose which you please’ (see OED 1c). In Mistress Generous's case, there is no choice left, because she cannot keep her arm hidden and she cannot humiliate herself further by showing her stump. She is trapped and her game is over.

hang give up, delay, suspend (a project or game)

hang about cling onto, embrace

hanged out o' the way executed by hanging (OED way n1, IV 37i)

hankering loitering

hankers `hangs', lingers or loiters with longing or expectation (OED hanker v1, 1)

Hannibal eye a blind eye (OED cites this instance only)

hapless unfortunate

happiest most fortunate

happily with good fortune, with success

happily fortunately, appropriately

happily fortunately, successfully; with great content

happy accurately foretold

happy fortunate, lucky; also, successful in performing what the circumstances require (OED 5a)

hard hardened, obdurate

hard by close by

hard-bound (1) frozen: compare Nathan Field, A Woman is a Weathercock (Queen’s Revels, c. 1610): ‘Lord, how he labours, like a hard-bound poet, whose brains had a frost in ’em’ (in William Peery, ed., The Plays of Nathan Field [Austin: University of Texas Press, 1950] 3.3.17-18); (2) constipated: compare John Day, The Parliament of Bees (auspices uncertain; printed London, 1641):

Phar[macopolis.] I’ll tell your master, sir, though you’ll take none,
Let me give your steward a purgation.
St[eward]. Why, I am well.
Phar[macopolis.] No, you are too hard bound,
And you must cast me up the fifty pound
I gave you in bribe-powder. (sig. F4v)

hardly with difficulty, trouble or hardship

hardness rigour, obstinacy (OED a.)

hare-brained having or showing no more 'brains' or sense than a hare

hare-finder a man whose business is to find or espy a hare in a form (OED)

hark thee listen to me

hark you listen to me

harlot not necessarily sexual: can be a generally pejorative term for a woman

harlot whore

harm damage, mischief

harman-beck constable; the parish-constable or beadle (cant)

Harpies in classical mythology, monsters who had the faces and breasts of women but the wings and bodies of birds and who fouled everything they touched

harrows heavy frames of timber which are dragged over ploughed land to break clods, pulverize and stir the soil, root up weeds, or cover in the seed (OED harrow n1, 1)

hasten accelerate

hasty sudden, rash

hasty pudding pudding made of flour stirred in boiling milk or water to the consistency of a thick batter; if the grain used is oatmeal, then it is usually called ‘porridge’

hatch half-door with an open space above; or the lower half of a divided door, which may be closed while the upper half is open

hatch bring forth from the egg, or more generally breed, to complete the idea of the previous line; figuratively, bring to maturity or full development, esp. by a covert or clandestine process; to contrive, devise, originate and develop (OED v1. 1, 4, and 6a).

haugh exclamation expressing joy, wonder or surprise (OED ha, int.)

haunches the part of the body between the last ribs and the thighs (OED)

haunts pursues, molests

hautboys "a wooden double-reed wind instrument of high pitch, having a compass of about 2 octaves, forming a treble to the bassoon (now usually oboe)" (OED hautboy, 1)

have take

have a mind wishes, desires

havings that which one has or possesses: one's possessions, property, wealth, belongings (OED vbl. n, 2)

haycock haystack, a conical heap of hay in the field (OED)

haytie twaytie no other instances of this compound have been found; the meaning is perhaps akin to the modern hoity-toity (giddy, flighty or haughty behaviour)

hazard take the risk of

hazard gamble, bet; risk

hazard risk (that is: I will see what I can achieve, although I risk my life in doing so)

hazard (n) risk of loss or harm (OED 3)

hazard (v) cause a danger of

hazard game at dice in which chances are complicated by arbitrary rules (OED 1)

ha[ve] you up as if before a magistrate

he-whores noise made by a donkey when spelled 'hee-haws' (pun)

he-whores male prostitutes

hea'en heaven (dialect)

head position of superiority

heads representatives, leaders

heads leaders

health drink to everyone's health

heaps multitudes, hosts (OED heap n, 3)

heark'ning listening, eavesdropping

Heart an exclamation or mild oath, short for ‘God’s heart!’

Heart mild oath: by God's heart

heart-whole 'Uninjured at the heart; having the spirits or courage unimpaired; undismayed' (OED 1)

heartily zealously, earnestly

heartsease a kind of flower; in the sixteenth century could refer to the pansy or the wallflower (OED 2); in context, the name of the flower has obvious relevance to Eulalia’s situation

heartsease a kind of flower; in the seventeenth century could refer to the pansy or the wallflower (OED 2)

heat rage, ardour; passion, lust

heat lust

heat (n) rage, ardour; the heat of one's life (metaphorically); passion, lust

heat (v) make (sexually) excited

heated made (sexually) excited, inflamed, impassioned (OED ppl. a. 2)

heathenish pagan

heavily sorrowfully, angrily (OED adv. 3); burdensomely, weightily (OED adv. 1)

heavy oppressive, overpowering

heavy serious (OED a1, III 12)

Hebrew unintelligible speech (The earliest example listed in the OED for this colloquial sense (n, 2b) dates from 1705.)

hedge construct a boundary with hedge or fence; or maintain a hedge by trimming or tying branches

hedge in minimize, limit (a metaphorical application of the main sense)

hedge in 'to secure (a debt), usually by including it in a larger one for which better security is obtained' (OED hedge v. 7a); and see Jonson's The Devil is an Ass 3.1.

heedless careless

heh an exclamation of amusement or irritation

heifer a young cow that has not yet had a calf (OED 1a): Wat probably deliberately uses this word to suggest Frances’ current sexual inexperience

heigh exclamation expressing exultation or surprise (OED hey, int.)

heigh an exclamation used as a form of encouragement (OED)

heigh-oh-ho exclamation, usually indicating sighing or languor, but here expressing joy and relief (OED heigh-ho, int.)

heinous terrible, horrible

heinous grievous, grave, severe (obsolete)

heir apparent 'The heir (of one still alive) whose right is indefeasible, provided he outlives his ancestor, at whose death he is heir-at-law' (OED). As opposed to 'heir presumptive': 'he who, if the ancestor should die immediately, would be his heir, but whose right of inheritance may be defeated by the contingency of some nearer heir being born' (OED, heir, n. 1b).

held obliged to adhere (OED hold v, 7b), constrained, bound (OED hold v, 10)

held your peace kept quiet

Helicon a mountain in Beotia, in myth the haunt of the Muses, and thus a figure for art, especially poetry

Hem An interjection like a slight half cough, used to attract attention (OED 1); in this case calling for more wine.

hempen made of hemp, hence coarse or rustic material

hence away from here (i.e. to heaven)

hence from now

hence away from here

hench-boys young male companions

here towards about to happen

hereafter later, in the future

hereby in this neighbourhood (OED 1)

heretofore in times past, formerly

heriots feudal services, especially handing over the best chattels or livestock from the property of deceased tenants (LEME); originally heriots consisted of weapons, horses, and other military equipments, restored to a lord on the death of his tenant(OED 2)

Hermes interpreter (in Greek mythology, son of Zeus, skilled in interpretation)

hew hollow

hewed hollowed

Hey! or 'A hey', an exclamation of approval or excitement, frequent as a musical refrain

Hey! interjection or exclamation expressing exultation, incitement, surprise, approval, or anything suggested by the context

heyday an exclamation indicating surprise

hideous terrifying, horrible

hie go quickly, hasten (OED v1. 2)

hie hasten, speed, go quickly

high elevated, rhetorical

high divine, heavenly

high grave, serious (OED adj. 6b); proud, arrogant, angry (OED adj. 14a)

high great

high lofty, exalted; luxurious; ‘high’ also means ‘intoxicated’ (OED adj. 16b)

high exalted, lofty; heavenly

high great; divine, heavenly

high grave, serious (OED adj. 6b)

high lofty; of an exalted rank; proud, arrogant

high stately (OED adj. 5a); well-advanced, well in progress (OED adj. 11a)

high of exalted rank

high-flown intoxicated (with alcohol)

highest greatest

hight is called (an affected, archaic term in the 1630s)

highway thief highwayman, the upper class of thieves; especially one who does his robbery on horseback with pistol or sword, as distinguished from a foot-pad

hilding a vicious, worthless woman

hind rustic

hinder impede, obstruct

hindlocks hair growing on the rear limbs (example from The Love-Sick Court cited in OED a. (n3) C.a)

hip-shot have a dislocated hip-joint (OED adj. 1)

hire wages

hirelings hired servants or workers, particularly used of rural employment

his its

hist 'a sibilant exclamation used to ... call on people to listen' (OED); the predecessor of the modern interjection 'psst!'

historical historiography, work of history (The earliest example which the OED gives for this elliptical sense dates from 1666.)

hit hit the mark, in the sense of "copied exactly"

hit (v) hit the mark, guessed correctly

hither to this place (i.e. to the place where lessons take place)

hither here (to this place)

hitherto thus far, up to this point

hitherto until now

hmh a variation on inarticulate exclamations such as ‘hum’ and ‘hem’, which can be used to express hesitation, embarrassment or dissatisfaction (see OED hum, int.; hem, int. A)

ho ‘an exclamation expressing, according to intonation, surprise, admiration, exultation (often ironical), triumph, taunting’ (OED int1, 1); ‘a call to stop or to cease what one is doing’ (OED int2, 1)

ho! a shout to summon help

hobby-horse a figure of a horse, deployed in a morris-dance, made of wickerwork, or other light material, furnished with a deep housing, and fastened about the waist of one of the performers, who executed various antics in imitation of the movements of a skittish or spirited horse

hobnailed rustic, boorish (often used disparagingly) (OED adj. 2): hobnails are nails 'with massive head and short tang, used for protecting the soles of heavy boots and shoes' (OED hobnail n, 1), i.e. the boots and shoes worn by working people

hobnols yokels, rustics (from Hobbinoll, the name of a shepherd in Spenser’s The Shepherd’s Calendar)

hoboy; hautboy wooden double-reed wind instrument, analogous to the modern oboe, though rather more raucous; hoboys were also known as shawms

hogshead large cask for liquids (OED 1)

hoigh riot of excitement

hoisting raising, lifting, elevating (often used in the seventeenth century, according to the OED, in relation to overtaxing, overpricing)

hold bet, wager

hold refrain (from speech)

hold endure

hold continue in, persist with

hold (n) imprisonment

hold (v) stop

hold tack match, keep up with, be equal to (OED, tack, n1. 11a)

holds fastenings, reins (meaning the women's matriarchal control and authority)

holds periods of confinement (OED n1. 4); OED only records the meaning of 'prison-cell' from 1717 (n1. 13), however there seems to be the suggestion of places of confinement, though perhaps not always in official prisons.

holds prevents, stops

holiday festival

holidays days of festivity, recreation, amusement (OED holiday 2)

Holla Stop! Cease! (OED int, 1)

Holland Holland-cloth, a fine linen fabric

holp helped. OED gives `holp' as a possible form for the past participle of the verb `to help' in the 16th and 17th centuries.

holy-day religious festival, day set aside for worship

homage acknowledgement of superiority (esp. in terms of rank) (OED n. 3); respectful tribute

home unsparingly; forthrightly

home effectively, to the heart of the matter (OED adv. 5a)

home-bred native, domestic, indigenous (OED adj. 2)

home-return homecoming, return to his home (OED home adv, 8a)

homely plain, simple

homicides murderers, man-killers (see OED n1. a)

honest married, respectable

honest suggests appreciation or praise, but can also be said with a patronising air to a social inferior (OED adj. 1c)

honest honourable, virtuous; not disguising his true character (OED honest a, 3)

honest respectable, honourable, upright

honest chaste

honestify make honourable by marriage (only example cited in OED)

honestly worthily (OED adv. 1); without fraud or falsehood (OED adv. 2)

honestly in a respectable manner; chastely

honey a term of endearment: sweetheart, darling (OED n. 5a)

honeycombs sweet treats; honeycomb is cut from the hive. In MC, Careless's rewards are removed, or he is thwarted.

honeyed sweetened, made receptive

honour obeisance; bows or curtsies (OED honour n, 5b; obsolete)

honour exalted rank or position (OED n. 4a)

honour glory, renown; positions of dignity (i.e. further advancement)

honour (v) glorify, reward with high office

honourers servants and friends

honours bows, obeisances (OED n. 5b)

honours obeisances; bows or curtsies

hooded covered, concealed

hoofing going on foot

hooped encircled (OED v1. 2)

hoops (jocularly) ribs (the body is figured as a barrel of beer)

hopeful full of hope, expectant of something desired (OED adj. 1)

hopeful promising, ‘giving promise of success or future good’ (OED adj. 2a)

horn a cuckold's horn

horn maker a man who seduces other men's wives, making the husbands cuckolds and thus wearers of horns

horn-book a leaf of paper containing the alphabet (often with the addition of the ten digits, some elements of spelling, and the Lord's Prayer) protected by a thin plate of translucent horn, and mounted on a tablet of wood with a projecting piece for a handle, much used for teaching in schools (OED)

horn-head cuckold (man with an unfaithful wife) who traditionally was thought of as having horns on his head

horn-mad mad with jealousy or with fear of being cuckolded

horned with reference to the belief that cuckolded husbands grew horns

hornpipe lively and vigorous dance, and the music that accompanies it

horse-locks shackles for a horse’s feet

horse-tricks performing horses

hose stockings

hospitable welcoming; ‘open and generous in mind or disposition’ (OED adj. 2: OED’s earliest citation is from 1655, but this meaning seems to be implied)

hosterly like the host of an inn

hot angry

hot sexually excited, rampant

hot dangerous (OED adj. 9b) (does not refer to stolen property until the nineteenth century)

hot eager (for), ardent (for)

hour hour of death

house family decent, lineage

house family

house music household musicians

house rites ceremonies and customs habitually observed in the household during important family occasions (here, the reference is specifically to the bridal feast, music, and dancing)

house-doves commonly applied to women that stay in the house, making sure all runs smoothly

house-word the motto of the house.

housekeepers people in charge of the house (OED 3a)

houses families, lineages, especially those of high status

housewife a worthless or impudent woman or girl (OED n. 2): pronounced ‘hussif’

housewife a woman who manages her household with skill and thrift, a domestic economist (OED 1)

housewifery management of household affairs, housekeeping (OED 1); thrift, economy (OED 1b)

hovel shed used as a shelter for farm animals, or for wretched human habitation; more specifically, a pigsty, whether literally for swine, or figuratively for dirty people, especially an abode of bestial lust, or of moral pollution generally; a place inhabited or frequented by the morally degraded (OED hovel, n1; sty n3, 1 and 2)

hovel-chair sedan chair, i.e. chair with canopy (see OED, hovel, n1. 3a)

how in what manner

how what; OED also includes it as an exclamation indicating grief or pain, though this is rare, and the examples included are both Scots (int. 1, 3)

how what

How Why

how a cry of pain or grief (OED int1, 3)

how dost? How are you doing?

how now ‘How is it now’: i.e. ‘what’s happening?’

how now exclamation indicating surprise

how now exclamation indicating reproach

howdies from 'how-do-ye', used as a name for the enquirer

however in any case (OED adv. 2)

Hoyday! an exclamation of annoyance, anger and exasperation (akin to 'Heyday!', which is more expressive of surprise or delight)

hoyden a rude, ignorant or awkward fellow; a clown, boor (OED, n; obsolete)

hoydens rude, ignorant fellows; clowns, boors (OED 1)

huckle-backed hump-backed

hue-and-cry the pursuit of a felon (by constables or by a mob of people) with a loud outcries, such as "Stop, thief!"

huffle ‘to puff up, inflate, or elevate with pride’ (OED v. 2a; The Demoiselle is OED’s earliest citation)

hufty-tufties finery (OED n. a); cf. Thomas Nashe, Lenten Stuff (London, 1599): ‘huftytufty youthful ruffling comrades wearing every one three yards of feather in his cap for his mistress’s favour’ (sig. D3r)

hugger mugger to keep secret, conceal (OED v.)

humanity decent human qualities

humanity civility, kindness

humblebees bumblebees

humiliate reduce, bring down, make low

humorous Moody, peevish, ill-humoured, out of humour (OED humorous a, 3a)

humorous capricious, whimsical (OED adj. 3); suffering from an imbalance of bodily humours (in old-fashioned physiology, the four chief fluids of the body, blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile) (OED adj. 2)

humorous moody, whimsical

humour temperament, disposition

humour inclination or disposition for some specified action, etc.; fancy (to do something) (OED n. 6b)

humour temperament, disposition; attitude

humour mood, temper, attitude, frame of mind

humour whim, caprice (OED n. 6)

humour (v) indulge, soothe

humours moods, tempers (OED n. 5)

humours in ancient and mediæval physiology, humours were the four chief fluids of the body (blood, phlegm, choler, and melancholy or black choler) and the balance of these humours determined a person's physical and mental health (OED n. 2b)

humours in ancient and mediæval physiology humours were the four chief fluids of the body (blood, phlegm, choler, and melancholy or black choler) and the balance of these humours determined a person's physical and mental health (OED n. 2b)

humph an expression of doubt or dissatisfaction (OED, int.)

hunches pushes, shoves (OED n. 1a)

hunger-bitten starving

hunting-match competitive hunting; a cross between a horse race and hunting

hurden a coarse fabric

husband manager of an estate; someone who manages his affairs well

husband marriage partner; manager of an estate

husband manager of an estate; someone who manages his affairs well; marriage partner

husbanding managing; saving up or storing

husbandman farmer

husbandman's farmer's

husbandry farming, agriculture (OED n. 2)

husbandry management of a household, thrift (OED n. 4)

huswif'ry thrift, economy, making the most of something (OED housewifery, 1b) but also the usage here carries the implication (and imputation) of "hussy", a disreputable woman

huswif'ry thrift, economy, making the most of something

huswife a pejorative term for a hussy or worthless woman (OED housewife n. 2)

Hydra-throated The Lernaean Hydra was a many-headed beast fought by Hercules as his second labour. As soon as one of the Hydra’s heads was cut off, another one grew in its place, and Hercules only defeated it by using a firebrand to scorch each neck stump after he had cut off a head. Brookall’s allusion to the Hydra suggests the monstrosity of the law, its multiplicity and its imperviousness to attack.

hydras in classical Greek mythology, the Hydra was a huge serpent which breathed poison vapours from its nine heads, one of which was immortal and the others not removed but doubled by decapitation (it infested a marsh at Lerna in the Peloponnese, where Hercules dispatched it as the second of his twelve labours)

hymeneal bridal (derived from Hymen, the Roman god of marriage)

Hymetus mountain in Attica in Greece

hyperbolize exaggerate