Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Hence?

\Hence\, adv. [OE. hennes, hens (the s is prop. a genitive ending; cf. {-wards}), also hen, henne, hennen, heonnen, heonene, AS. heonan, heonon, heona, hine; akin to OHG. hinn[=a]n, G. hinnen, OHG. hina, G. hin; all from the root of E. he. See {He}.] 1. From this place; away. ``Or that we hence wend.'' --Chaucer. Arise, let us go hence. --John xiv. 31. I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles. --Acts xxii. 21. 2. From this time; in the future; as, a week hence. ``Half an hour hence.'' --Shak. 3. From this reason; as an inference or deduction. Hence, perhaps, it is, that Solomon calls the fear of the Lord the beginning of wisdom. --Tillotson. 4. From this source or origin. All other faces borrowed hence Their light and grace. --Suckling. Whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts? --James. iv. 1. Note: Hence is used, elliptically and imperatively, for go hence; depart hence; away; be gone. ``Hence with your little ones.'' --Shak. -- From hence, though a pleonasm, is fully authorized by the usage of good writers. An ancient author prophesied from hence. --Dryden. Expelled from hence into a world Of woe and sorrow. --Milton.
\Hence\, v. t. To send away. [Obs.] --Sir P. Sidney.