Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A mean, worthless person; a wretch.
  • Cowardly; spiritless; base: as, a hilding fellow.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A base, menial wretch.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a wretch, a contemptible person

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Origin unknown.

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Examples

  • Giles Gosling, the cowardly hilding, refused me one on any terms whatever, lest, forsooth, he should suffer.

    Kenilworth 2004

  • If your lordship find him not a hilding, hold me no more in your respect.

    All’s Well That Ends Well 2004

  • Some hilding fellow he must be, who dared not stay to assert his claim to the tourney prize which chance had assigned him.

    Ivanhoe 2004

  • “Some hilding fellow, that had stolen the horse he rode on,” with hilding meaning “bent downward, twisted waywardly aside.”

    No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003

  • “Some hilding fellow, that had stolen the horse he rode on,” with hilding meaning “bent downward, twisted waywardly aside.”

    No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003

  • “Some hilding fellow, that had stolen the horse he rode on,” with hilding meaning “bent downward, twisted waywardly aside.”

    No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003

  • “Some hilding fellow, that had stolen the horse he rode on,” with hilding meaning “bent downward, twisted waywardly aside.”

    No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003

  • If your lordship find him not a hilding, hold me no more in your respect.

    Act III. Scene VI. All’s Well that Ends Well 1914

  • ` ` None of note enough to be put to ransom, '' answered the Captain; ` ` a set of hilding fellows there were, whom we dismissed to find them a new master --- enough had been done for revenge and profit; the bunch of them were not worth a cardecu.

    Ivanhoe 1892

  • Some hilding fellow he must be, who dared not stay to assert his claim to the tourney prize which chance had assigned him.

    Ivanhoe 1892

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