Hide
Pronunciation
- enPR: hīd, IPA: /haɪd/
- Rhymes: -aɪd
Origin 1
From Middle English hiden, huden, from Old English hȳdan ("to hide, conceal, preserve"), from Proto-Germanic *hÅ«dijanÄ… ("to conceal"), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keudh- ("to cover, wrap, encase"), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keu- ("to cover"). Cognate with Low German (ver)hüden, (ver)hüen ("to hide, cover, conceal"), Welsh cuddio ("to hide"), Ancient Greek κεÏθω (keúthô, "to conceal"), Sanskrit (kuharam, "a cave"). Related to hut and sky.
Full definition of hide
Verb
- (transitive) To put (something) in a place where it will be harder to discover or out of sight.
- 1856, Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary, Part III Chapter XI, translated by Eleanor Marx-AvelingThe blind man, whom he had not been able to cure with the pomade, had gone back to the hill of Bois-Guillaume, where he told the travellers of the vain attempt of the druggist, to such an extent, that Homais when he went to town hid himself behind the curtains of the "Hirondelle" to avoid meeting him.
- 2013-07-19, Timothy Garton Ash, Where Dr Pangloss meets Machiavelli, Hidden behind thickets of acronyms and gorse bushes of detail, a new great game is under way across the globe. Some call it geoeconomics, but it's geopolitics too. The current power play consists of an extraordinary range of countries simultaneously sitting down to negotiate big free trade and investment agreements.
- He hides his magazines under the bed.The politicians were accused of keeping information hidden from the public.
- (intransitive) To put oneself in a place where one will be harder to find or out of sight.
- 2013, William E. Conner, An Acoustic Arms Race, Nonetheless, some insect prey take advantage of clutter by hiding in it. Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible†to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter) above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Derived terms
Origin 2
From Old English hȳd, from Proto-Germanic *hÅ«diz (cf. West Frisian hûd, Dutch huid, German Haut), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keu-t- 'skin, hide' (cf. Welsh cwd ("scrotum"), Latin cutis ("skin"), Lithuanian kutys ("purse, money-belt"), Ancient Greek κÏτος (kýtos, "hollow vessel"), σκῦτος (skÅ·tos, "cover, hide"), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keu-, 'to cover'. More at sky.
Noun
hide
(plural hides)- (countable) The skin of an animal.
- (derogatory) The human skin.
- ShakespeareO tiger's heart, wrapped in a woman's hide!
- (countable) mainly British A covered structure from which hunters, birdwatchers, etc can observe animals without scaring them.
- (uncountable, informal, usually US) One's own life or personal safety, especially when in peril.
- 1957, Ayn Rand, Francisco d'Anconia's speech in Atlas Shrugged:The rotter who simpers that he sees no difference between the power of money and the power of the whip, ought to learn the difference on his own hide—as I think he will.
Derived terms
Verb
- To beat with a whip made from hide.
- 1891, Robert Weir, J. Moray Brown, RidingHe ran last week, and he was hided, and he was out on the day before yesterday, and here he is once more, and he knows he's got to run and to be hided again.
Origin 3
From Middle English hide, from Old English hīd, hȳd, hīġed, hīġid ("a measure of land"), for earlier *hīwid ("the amount of land needed to support one family"), a derivative of Proto-Germanic *hīwaz, *hīwŠ("relative, fellow-lodger, family"), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱei- ("to lie with, store, be familiar"). Related to Old English hīwisc ("hide of land, household"), Old English hīwan ("members of a family, household"). More at hewe, hind.
Noun
hide
(plural hides)- A medieval land measure equal to the amount of land that could sustain one free family; usually 100 acres. Forty hides equalled a barony.