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Hew

//hjuː// name, noun, verb

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname originating as a patronymic.
  2. 2
    Initialism of (US Department of) Health, Education, and Welfare, now HHS. US, abbreviation, alt-of, historical, initialism
Noun
  1. 1
    Destruction by cutting down or hewing. countable, obsolete, uncountable

    "Of whom he makes such hauocke and such hew, / That swarmes of damned soules to hell he sends"

  2. 2
    Hue; colour. countable, obsolete, uncountable

    "[…] while the youthful hew Sits on thy skin like morning dew"

  3. 3
    Shape; form. countable, obsolete, uncountable

    "He taught to imitate that Lady trew, Whose semblance she did carrie under feigned hew."

Verb
  1. 1
    To chop away at; to whittle down; to mow down. ambitransitive

    "Hew them to pieces, hack their bones asunder[…]"

  2. 2
    strike with an axe; cut down, strike wordnet
  3. 3
    To shape; to form. transitive

    "to hew out a sepulchre"

  4. 4
    make or shape as with an axe wordnet
  5. 5
    To act according to, to conform to; usually construed with to. US, transitive

    "Few men measured up to his standard of righteousness; he hewed to the line."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English hewen, from Old English hēawan, from Proto-West Germanic *hauwan, from Proto-Germanic *hawwaną, from Proto-Indo-European *kewh₂- (“to strike, hew, forge”). Cognate to West Frisian houwe (“to hew”), Cimbrian hauan (“to dig”), Dutch houwen (“to hew”), German hauen (“to hew”), Luxembourgish haen (“to chop”), Danish hugge (“to hew”), Faroese høgga (“to hew”), Icelandic höggva (“to hew”), Norwegian Bokmål hogge, hugge (“to hew”), Norwegian Nynorsk hogga (“to hew”), Swedish hugga (“to hew”). Sense 3 derives from the phrase hew to the line (literally “cut evenly with an axe or saw”).

Etymology 2

From Middle English hewen, from Old English hēawan, from Proto-West Germanic *hauwan, from Proto-Germanic *hawwaną, from Proto-Indo-European *kewh₂- (“to strike, hew, forge”). Cognate to West Frisian houwe (“to hew”), Cimbrian hauan (“to dig”), Dutch houwen (“to hew”), German hauen (“to hew”), Luxembourgish haen (“to chop”), Danish hugge (“to hew”), Faroese høgga (“to hew”), Icelandic höggva (“to hew”), Norwegian Bokmål hogge, hugge (“to hew”), Norwegian Nynorsk hogga (“to hew”), Swedish hugga (“to hew”). Sense 3 derives from the phrase hew to the line (literally “cut evenly with an axe or saw”).

Etymology 3

See hue.

Etymology 4

Variant of Hugh.

See also for "hew"

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