hench-boy, a page. Middleton, Roaring Girl, ii. 1 (Mis. T.); Randolph, Muses’ Looking Glass, i. 4 (Mrs. Flowerdew); hinch-boy, B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed (Song). Cp. henchman, a page, Mids. Nt. D. ii. 1. 121; ‘A henchman or henchboy, page d’honneur, qui marche devant quelque Seigneur de grand authorité (Sherwood).’ See Prompt. EETS. (note, no. 999).
hend, to hold, grasp. Spenser, F. Q. v. 11. 27; to cast, hurl, Mirror for Mag., Brennus, st. 83. OE. ge-hendan, to hold in the hand.
hent, to seize, lay hold of. Winter’s Tale, iv. 2. 133; pt. t. hent, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 2. 1; pp. hent, occupied, Meas. for Measure, iv. 6. 14; caught, taken, Peele, Tale of Troy, ed. Dyce, p. 553. ME. hente, to seize (Chaucer, C. T. A. 3347); OE. hentan.
her, their. Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 160; Sept., 39. ME. here (her) of them, their (Chaucer); OE. hira; see Dict. M. and S.
herber, a green plot, flower-garden. Lusty Juventus, Song after Prologue, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 46. ME. herber, a garden (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. ii. 1705); an arbour (Leg. G. W. 203). See Dict. (s.v. Arbour).
herberow, a lodging, shelter. Morte Arthur, leaf 77. 11; bk. iv, c. 25; herborowe, v., to lodge, provide shelter for, id., lf. 90, back, 19; bk. v, c. 11. ME. herberwe, a lodging, shelter; an inn; a harbour (Chaucer). Icel. herbergi, lit. army-shelter. See [harborough].
herden, made of hards or fibres of flax. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 118. In prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Harden, sb.).
heriot; see [harriot].
herneshaw, a young heron. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 7. 9; ‘Heronceau, an hernshawe’, Palsgrave; hernesewe, Golding, Metam. xiv. 580; heronsew, Disobedient Child, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 282. For numerous prov. pronunciations of the word, which is in common use from the north country to Kent, see EDD. (s.v. Heronsew). ME. heronsewe (Chaucer, C. T. F. 68); Anglo-F. herouncel (Rough List).
herring-bones, stitches arranged in a zigzag pattern. Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. vii. 20.