Emily Dickinson Lexicon

heft, n. [OE hębban < Germanic.] (webplay: weight).

1. Majesty; grandeur; heaviness; solemnity; soberness; melancholy; pensiveness; somberness; ponderousness; heavyheartedness; profound sadness.
2. Burden; millstone; weighty load; heavy encumbrance; [fig.] torment; torture; affliction; overwhelming trial; painful suffering.

heft, v. [see heft, n.] (webplay: sides, weight).

Weigh; gauge; measure; compare the weight of; lift in order to weigh; [fig.] ponder; size up; analyze; scrutinize; compare mentally.

heir, n. [OFr.] (webplay: estate, God's, law, title, owner, possession, property).

One entitled to possess; inheritor of an ancestor's possessions; one who takes on qualities of a progenitor.

hell, n. [OE.] (webplay: death, grave, heaven, place, soul).

1. Misery; hardship.
2. Place for punishment of sins after death; [fig.] experiences in life that mirror those punishments.

helmet, n. [Fr. healmet.]

Metal cap; protective head-piece; armor for the head; [fig.] bee's head.

helmsman, n. [OE helma + man.]

Guide of a ship; one who steers a vessel.

help, n. [OE < Germanic.]

Aid; succor.

help (-ed, -s), v. [OE holpen < Germanic.] (webplay: better, blindness, cure, disease, ease, memory, pain, time).

1. Save me; rescue me; [cry for assistance].
2. Supply; refill; replenish.
3. Aid; assist.
4. Forbear; prevent oneself from.
5. Cure; relieve; succor.

helpless, adj. [see help, n.]

1. Powerless; vulnerable.
2. Useless: unavailing; unprofitable.

hem, (-s), n. [OE hem(m), border.]

1. Edge; border; remotest periphery.
2. Border of a cloth; doubled, sewn, and embellished perimeter of a garment.