hidder and shidder, male and female animals. Spenser, Shep. Kal., Sept., 211. Hidder = he-der, he ‘deer’, i.e. male animal; shidder = she-der, she ‘deer’, i.e. female animal. In Yorks. and Lincoln the sheep-farmers speak of a flock of ‘he-ders’ and ‘she-ders’, see EDD. (s.v. He, 10 (6)).
high-copt, high-topped. Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 1163. See [coppe].
high-lone, entirely alone; said of a child learning to walk. Romeo, i. 3. 36 (1 quarto); Marston, Antonio, Pt. II, iv. 2. 9. [‘The Mares . . . were scarce able to go high-lone’, G. Washington, Diary, March 13, 1760 (NED.).]
highmen, loaded dice that produced high throws. Middleton, Your Five Gallants, v. 1 (Fitsgrave); ‘Two bayle of false dyce, videlicet, high men and loe men’, London Prodigal, i. 1. 218.
hight, to promise; ‘And vowes men shal him hight’, Phaer, Aeneid, i. 290. In Chaucer we find highte, pt. t. of hote, to promise (Tr. and Cr. v. 1636; C. T. E. 496); OE. hēht (hēt), pt. t. of hātan to promise, to bid, command. See [hot] ([hote]).
hight, pr. and pt. t., is or was called; ‘I hight’, I am named, Peele, Araynement of Paris, i. 1 (Venus); was called, was named, ‘She Queene of Faeries hight’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 14; ‘The citie of the great king hight it well.’ This is a Chaucerian spelling and usage, the form being due to ME. hight (promised, commanded), see above. In Chaucer we find hight, ‘is called’, and ‘was called’ (Leg. G. W. 417, and 725). But we also find the regular form hatte for both pres. and pt. t. (Tr. and Cr. iii. 797; H. Fame, 1303). OE. hātte, is or was called, pr. and pt. t. of hātan. This is the only trace of the old passive voice preserved in English, cp. Goth. haitada, I am called.
higre, the ‘bore’ in a river. Drayton, Pol. vii. 10; xxviii. 482. Med. L. Higra in William of Malmesbury, De Pontific.: ‘Anglis dictus quidam quotidianus aquarum Sabrinae fluvii furor quem vel voraginem vel vertiginem undarum dicam nescio’ (Ducange). See EDD. (s.v. Eagre).
hild, to heel over, to lean over; ‘I hylde, I leane on the one syde, as a bote or shyp’, Palsgrave. An E. Anglian form, see EDD. (s.v. Heald, vb.1 1). ME. hilde, to incline; heldyn, ‘inclino’ (Prompt.). OE. hieldan (late WS. hyldan, Kentish heldan), to incline. See NED. (s.v. Hield).
hilding, a good-for-nothing person of either sex. Applied to a man, All’s Well, iii. 6. 4; applied to a woman; a jade, a baggage, Romeo, iii. 5. 169; Dryden, Spanish Fryar, ii. 3; a worthless horse, Holland’s Livy, xxi. 40, p. 415. See Nares.
hill, to cover; to cover from sight, to hide. Warner, Albion’s England, bk. iv, ch. 21, st. 27; hild, pp. Phaer, tr. Aeneid, ii. 472. In prov. use in various parts of England from the north to Wilts., see EDD. (s.v. Hill, vb.2). ME. hyllyn, ‘operio’ (Prompt.); hile (Wyclif, Mark 14. 65). Icel. hylja, to cover.