Emily Dickinson Lexicon

HEC'TOR, n. [from Hector, the son of Priam, a brave Trojan warrior.]

1. A bully; a blustering, turbulent, noisy fellow.
2. One who teases or vexes.

HEC'TOR, v.i.

To play the bully; to bluster; to be turbulent or insolent. Swift.

HEC'TOR, v.t.

1. To threaten; to bully; to treat with insolence. Dryden.
2. To tease; to vex; to torment by words.

HEC'TOR-ED, pp.

Bullied; teased.

HEC'TOR-ING, ppr.

Bullying; blustering; vexing. [“The epithet of a hectoring fellow is a more familiar instance of a participle similarly formed, though strangely distorted in its use to express a meaning almost the opposite of its original. The Hector of Homer unites, we know, 'The mildest manners with the bravest mind.' The sole bulwark of Troy, he reveres the opinion of her citizens; armed and hastening to the battle, he stops to caress his infant, and to soothe the afflictions of its mother; to his brother's faults he is indulgent; and Helen herself witnesses over his grave that she had never heard from him one accent of unkindness, or ceased to be protected from the reproach of others by his mild speech and kindly dispositions: Σῆ τ' αγανοφροσύνη, καὶ σοῖς αγανοῖς ἐπἑεσσι.” Nugæ Metricæ, an unpublished work by Lord Grenville, 1824, p. 86. – E. H. B.]

HEC'TOR-ISM, n.

The disposition or practice of a hector; a bullying. – Ch. Relig. Appeal.

HEC'TOR-LY, a.

Blustering; insolent. – Barrow.

HED-EN-BERG'ITE, n. [from Hedenberg, who first analyzed it.]

A mineral, or ore of iron, in masses, composed of shining plates, which break into rhombic fragments; found at Tunaberg, in Sweden. – Cleaveland.

HED-ER-A'CEOUS, a. [L. hederaceus, from hedera, ivy; W. eizaw, ivy, from holding, clinging; eiziaw, to possess. See Heath.]

1. Pertaining to ivy.
2. Producing ivy.

HED'ER-AL, a.

Composed of ivy; belonging to ivy. – Bailey.

HED-E-RIF'ER-OUS, a. [L. hedera, ivy, and fero, to bear.]

Producing ivy.

HEDGE, n. [hej; Sax. hege, heag, hæg, hegge; G. heck; D. heg, haag; Dan. hekke or hek; Sw. hägn, hedge, protection; Fr. haie; W. cae. Hence Eng. haw, and Hague in Holland. Ar. حَاجٌ haugan, a species of thorny plant.]

Properly, a thicket of thorn-bushes or other shrubs or small trees; but appropriately, such a thicket planted round a field to fence it, or in rows, to separate the parts of a garden. Hedge, prefixed to another word, or in composition, denotes something mean, as a hedge-priest, a hedge-press, a hedge-vicar, that is, born in or belonging to the hedges or woods, low, outlandish. [Not used in America.]

HEDGE, v.i. [hej.]

To hide, as in a hedge; to hide; to skulk. Shak.

HEDGE, v.t. [hej.]

1. To inclose with a hedge; to fence with a thicket of shrubs or small trees; to separate by a hedge; as, to hedge a field or garden.
2. To obstruct with a hedge, or to obstruct in any manner. I will hedge up thy way with thorns. Hos. ii.
3. To surround for defense; to fortify. England hedged in with the main. Shak.
4. To inclose for preventing escape. That is a law to hedge in the cuckow. Locke. Dryden, Swift and Shakspeare have written hedge for edge, to edge in, but improperly.

HEDGE'-BILL, or HEDG'ING-BILL, n.

A cutting hook used in dressing hedges.

HEDGE'-BORN, a.

Of low birth, as if born in the woods; outlandish; obscure. Shak.

HEDGE'-BOTE, n.

Wood for repairing hedges. Blackstone.

HEDGE'-CREEP-ER, n.

One who skulks under hedges for bad purposes.

HEDGE-FU'MI-TO-RY, n.

A plant. Ainsworth.

HEDGE'HOG, n.

1. A quadruped, the Erinaceus. The common hedgehog has round ears, and crested nostrils; his body is about nine inches long, and the upper part is covered with prickles or spines, and the under part with hair. When attacked, this animal erects his prickles and rolls himself into a round form, which presents the points of the prickles on all sides to an assailant. Encyc.
2. A term of reproach. Shak.
3. A plant of the genus Medicago, or snail-trefoil. The seeds are shaped like a snail, downy, and armed with a few short spines. Encyc.
4. The globe-fish, Orbis echinatus. Ainsworth. This fish belongs to the genus Diodon. It is covered with long spines, and has the power of inflating its body, whence the name globe-fish. [Fr. orbe.] Cuvier. The Sea-hedgehog, is the Echinus, a genus of Zoophytes, generally of a spheroidal or oval form, and covered with movable spines. Cuvier. Cyc.

HEDGE-HOG-THIS'TLE, n.

A plant, the Cactus. Fam. of Plants.

HEDGE'-HYS-SOP, n.

A plant, the Gratiola.

HEDGE'LESS, a.

Having no hedge.

HEDGE'-MUS-TARD, n.

A plant, the Erysimum.

HEDGE'-NET-TLE, n.

A plant, the Galeopsis. The shrubby hedge-nettle is of the genus Prasium.