hoit, to be noisy; to indulge in noisy mirth. Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of Burning Pestle, i. 3 (Mrs. M.); Etherege, Man of Mode, v. 2 (Dorimant); Fuller, Pisgah, ii. 4. 6. ‘To hoit’, to play the fool; ‘hoyting’, riotous and noisy mirth, are in prov. use in the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Hoit, vb.1 4).
hokos pokos, a juggler. B. Jonson, Staple of News, ii. 1 (Mirth). Cp. G. hokuspokus, jugglery; see Weigand and H. Paul.
Hole, the; See [counter] (3). In Cook’s play of Green’s Tu Quoque (printed in Ancient E. Drama, ii. 563) Spendall is represented as in prison ‘on the Master’s side’, or the best part of the prison. But he runs through his money, and is advised to remove ‘into some cheaper ward’. He asks ‘What ward should I remove in?’ Holdfast replies, ‘Why, to the Twopenny Ward; . . . or, if you will, you may go into the Hole, and there you may feed for nothing.’ See [basket].
Hollantide, the season of All Saints, the first week in November, All Hallows’-tide. Middleton, Family of Love, iv. 1 (Mis. P.); All-holland-tide, Your Five Gallants, iv. 2 (Servant). See EDD. (s.v. Hallantide). OE. Hālgena tīd, the Saints’ Season.
holt, a small wood or grove. Fletcher, Faithful Shepherdess, ii. 3 (Sul. Shepherd). ME. holt, a plantation (Chaucer, C. T. A. 6). OE. holt, a wood (Beowulf).
Holyrood, Holyrode-day, the Festival of the Invention of the Holy Cross, May 3; ‘Any time between Martilmas and holy-rode day’, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 134. 21; the Festival of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Holy Cross Day, September 14, 1 Hen. IV, i. 1. 52.
honest, chaste. Merry Wives, ii. 1. 247; iii. 3. 236; iv. 2. 107; ‘Like as an whore envyeth an honest woman’, Coverdale, 2 Esdras xvi. 49.
honniken, a term of contempt; a despised fellow. Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, iv. 5 (Lord Mayor); here honniken is equated to needy knave. Evidently connected with MHG. hone, a despised person, one who lives in shame and contempt; cp. G. hohn, scorn, derision.
honorificabilitudinitatibus. Given as a specimen of a long word, L. L. L. v. 1. 41; Fletcher, Mad Lover, i. 1 (Fool).
hooch, a ‘hutch’, a chest. Gascoigne, Flowers (ed. Hazlitt, i. 67). ‘Hutch’ is in common prov. use in Suffolk for one of those oaken chests still to be seen in cottages (EDD.). ME. huche, ‘cista, archa’ (Prompt.); see note, no. 1031 (EETS., p. 622). See [hutch].