hide

• hyde (obsolete)

• enPR: hīd, IPA^(key): /haɪd/

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• Rhymes: -aɪd

From Middle English hiden, huden, from Old English hȳdan (“to hide, conceal, preserve”), from Proto-West Germanic *hūdijan (“to conceal”), from Proto-Germanic *hūdijaną (“to conceal”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewdʰ- (“to cover, wrap, encase”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewH- (“to cover”).

The verb was originally weak. In the King James Version of the Bible (1611), both hid and hidden are used for the past participle.

hide (third-person singular simple present hides, present participle hiding, simple past hid, past participle hidden or (archaic) hid)

1. (transitive) To put (something) in a place where it will be out of sight or harder to discover. synonyms, antonyms ▲quotations ▼

   Synonyms: conceal, occult, hide away, secrete, veil, disguise, bury

   Antonyms: disclose, expose, reveal, show, uncover, visiblize, visualize

   He hides his magazines under the bed.

   The politicians were accused of keeping information hidden from the public.

   • 1856, Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary, Part III Chapter XI, translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling

     The 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 July 19, Timothy Garton Ash, “Where Dr Pangloss meets Machiavelli”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 18:

     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.

2. (intransitive) To put oneself in a place where one will be out of sight or harder to find. synonyms, antonyms ▲quotations ▼

   Synonyms: go undercover, hide away, hide out, lie low, hole up

   Antonyms: reveal, show

   • 2013 May-June, William E. Conner, “An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, pages 206–7:

     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.

   • 2014 October 27, Taylor Swift, Ryan Tedder, “I Know Places (Taylor's Version)”, in 1989 (Taylor's Version)‎^[1], performed by Taylor Swift, published 27 October 2023:

     Baby, I know places we won't be found, and
     They'll be chasing their tails trying to track us down
     'Cause I, I know places we can hide
     I know places

From Middle English hyde, from Old English hȳd, from Proto-West Germanic *hūdi, from Proto-Germanic *hūdiz, from Proto-Indo-European *kéw(H)tis (“skin, hide”) (compare Latin cutis (“skin, rind, hide”)), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kew(H)- (“to cover”), ultimately the same root as the above etymology. More at sky.

hide (plural hides)

2. (countable) The skin of an animal. synonyms ▲

   Synonyms: pelt, skin

3. (obsolete or derogatory) The human skin. quotations ▼
   • c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]:

     O tiger's heart, wrapped in a woman's hide!

5. (metonymic, uncountable, informal, usually US) One's own life or personal safety, especially when in peril. coordinate term ▲quotations ▼

   Coordinate term: ass (see ass § Usage notes)

   to save his own hide

   better watch his hide

   • 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.

6. (countable) (mainly British) A covered structure from which hunters, birdwatchers, etc can observe animals without scaring them. quotations ▼
   • 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 382, about Tighnabruaich:

     A Forest Trail and wild life hides lie 2 miles to the north-east. Blue hares, deer, wild geese, herons and duck can be discreetly observed from the hides.

7. (countable, architecture) A secret room for hiding oneself or valuables; a hideaway. quotations ▼
   • 1980, Robert M. Jones, editor, Walls and Ceilings, Time-Life Books, →ISBN, page 125:

     In the early days of American settlement, hides were built into houses to provide protection from the Indians and to conceal merchandise from the threat of taxation or thievery.

8. (countable) A covered structure to which a pet animal can retreat, as is recommended for snakes.

hide (third-person singular simple present hides, present participle hiding, simple past and past participle hided)

1. To beat with a whip made from hide. quotations ▼
   • 1891, Robert Weir, J. Moray Brown, Riding:

     He 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.

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, *hīwō (“relative, fellow-lodger, family”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱey- (“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.

hide (plural hides)

2. (historical) A unit of land and tax assessment of varying size, originally as intended to support one household with dependents. [from 9th c.] synonym ▲quotations ▼

   Synonym: carucate

   • 2016, Peter H. Wilson, The Holy Roman Empire, Penguin, published 2017, page 488:

     The exact size of hides varied with soil quality, but each one generally encompassed 24 to 26 hectares.

The hide was originally intended to represent the amount of land farmed by a single household but was primarily connected to obligations owed (in England) to the Saxon and Norman kings, and thus varied greatly from place to place. Around the time of the Domesday Book under the Normans, the hide was usually but not always the land expected to produce £1 (1 Tower pound of sterling silver) in income over the year.

• (100 hides) barony

• (¹⁄₄ hide) See virgate
• (¹⁄₈ hide) See oxgang
• (¹⁄₁₆ hide) nook
• farundel

• Heid, Ihde, hied

• ide

From Turkish iğde (“oleaster”).^[1]

• IPA^(key): /ˈhidɛ/

hide f (plural hide, definite hidja, definite plural hidet)

1. (botany) jujube (Ziziphus jujuba)

from Old English hīd, hȳd, hīġed, hīġid (“a measure of land”), from earlier *hīwid (“the amount of land needed to support one family”), a derivative of Proto-Germanic *hīwaz, *hīwō (“relative, fellow-lodger, family”), related to *hīwô (“household”).

hide (plural hides or hiden or hide)

1. hide (unit of land)

• hyde

• English: hide
• Scots: hyd, hid

• “hīde, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

From hiden (“to hide”).

hide

1. concealment
2. hiding spot

• hid, hyd, hyde

• English: hide
• Scots: hide

• “hīd(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

hide

1. alternative form of hyde (“skin”)

hide

1. alternative form of hythe (“landing place, port”)

hide

1. alternative form of heed (“head”)

hide

1. alternative form of hiden (“to hide”)

• IPA^(key): /ˈxiː.de/, [ˈhiː.de]

hīde

1. inflection of hīd:
   1. nominative plural
   2. accusative singular/plural
   3. genitive/dative singular