Emily Dickinson Lexicon

HES'I-TATE, v.i. [s as z. L. hæsito; Fr. hesiter; from hæsi, pret. of L. hæreo, to hang.]

1. To stop or pause respecting decision or action; to be doubtful as to fact, principle or determination; to be in suspense or uncertainty; as, he hesitated whether to accept the offer or not. We often hesitate what judgment to form. It is never transitive, unless by poetic license. Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike. Pope.
2. To stammer; to stop in speaking.

HES'I-TA-TED, pp.

Stopped; paused; doubted.

HES'I-TA-TING, ppr.

Doubting; pausing; stammering.

HES'I-TA-TING-LY, adv.

With hesitation or doubt.

HES-I-TA'TION, n.

1. A pausing or delay in forming an opinion or commencing action; doubt; suspension of opinion or decision, from uncertainty what is proper to be decided. When evidence is clear, we may decide without hesitation.
2. A stopping in speech; intermission between words; stammering. Swift.

HES-PE'RI-AN, a. [L. hesperius, western, from hesperus, vesper, the evening star, Venus, Gr. εσπερος.]

Western; situated at the west.

HES-PE'RI-AN, n.

An inhabitant of a western country. J. Barlow.

HES'SIAN-FLY, n.

The Cecidomyia destructor, an insect destructive to wheat; so called from the opinion that it was brought into this country by the Hessian troops, during the revolution. It may be called the wheat-fly.

HEST, n. [Sax. hæse; G. geheiss, a command; heissen, to call, to bid; D. heeten. See Heat.]

Command; precept; injunction; order. [Now obsolete, but it is retained in the compound, behest.]

HES'Y-CHAST, n. [Gr. Ησυχος.]

A quietist. Bib. Repository.

HET'E-RAR-CHY, n. [Gr. ετερος, another, and αρχη, rule.]

The government of an alien. Bp. Hall.

HET'E-RO-CLITE, a. [or HET-E-RO-CLIT'IC, or HET-E-RO-CLIT'IC-AL.]

Irregular; anomalous; deviating from ordinary forms or rules. Brown.

HET'E-RO-CLITE, n. [Gr. ετεροκλιτον; ετερος, another, or different, and κλιτος, from κλινω, to incline, to lean.]

1. In grammar, a word which is irregular or anomalous either in declension or conjugation, or which deviates from ordinary forms of inflection in words of a like kind. It is particularly applied to nouns irregular in declension.
2. Any thing or person deviating from common forms. Johnson.

HET-E-ROC'LI-TOUS, a.

Heteroclitic. [Not in use.]

HET'E-RO-DOX, a. [Gr. ετερος, another, different, and δοξα, opinion.]

1. In theology, heretical; contrary to the faith and doctrines of the true church; or more precisely, contrary to the real doctrines of the Scriptures; as, a heterodox opinion; opposed to orthodox.
2. Repugnant to the doctrines or tenets of any established church.
3. Holding opinions repugnant to the doctrines of the Scriptures; as, a heterodox divine; or holding opinions contrary, to those of an established church.

HET'ER-O-DOX-LY, adv.

In a heterodox manner.

HET'ER-O-DOX-NESS, n.

State of being heterodox.

HET'E-RO-DOX-Y, n.

Heresy; an opinion or doctrine contrary to the doctrines of the Scriptures, or contrary to those of an established church.

HET-E-ROG'A-MOUS, a. [Gr. ἕτερος, different, and γάμος, marriage.]

In botany, having different essential parts of fructification.

HET'E-RO-GENE, a. [Obs.]

[See the next word.]

HET-E-RO-GE'NE-AL, or HET-E-RO-GE'NE-OUS, a. [Gr. ετερος, other, and γενος, kind.]

Of a different kind or nature; unlike or dissimilar in kind; opposed to homogeneous. The light whose rays are all alike refrangible, I call simple, homogeneal and similar; and that whose rays are some more refrangible than others, I call compound, heterogeneal and dissimilar. Newton. Heterogeneous nouns, are such as are of different genders in the singular and plural numbers; as, hic locus, of the masculine gender in the singular, and hi loci and hæc loca, both masculine and neuter in the plural. Hoc cælum, neuter in the singular; hi cæli, masculine in the plural. Heterogeneous quantities, are those which are of such different kind and consideration, that one of them, taken any number of times, never equals or exceeds the other. Heterogeneous surds, are such as have different radical signs. Encyc.

HET-E-RO-GE-NE'I-TY, n.

1. Opposition of nature; contrariety or dissimilitude of qualities. [Ill formed.]
2. Dissimilar part; something of a different kind. Boyle.

HET-E-RO-GE'NE-OUS-NESS, n.

Difference of nature and quality; dissimilitude or contrariety in kind, nature or qualities.

HET-ER-O-PATH'IC, a.

The same as allopathic.

HET-E-RO-PHYL, or HET-E-ROPH'YL-LUS, n. [Gr. ετερος and φυλλον.]

A marine animal of the Ammonite species, having two forms of foliage.