hem

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /hɛm/
  • (pin–pen merger) IPA^(key): /hɪm/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛm
• Homophone: him (pin-pen merger)

Interjection

hem

1. Used to fill in the gap of a pause with a vocalized sound.

Noun

hem (plural hems)

1. An utterance or sound of the voice like "hem", often indicative of hesitation or doubt, sometimes used to call attention.
   • Spectator

     his morning hems

Verb

hem (third-person singular simple present hems, present participle hemming, simple past and past participle hemmed)

1. To make the sound expressed by the word hem; to hesitate in speaking.
   • Shakespeare

     Hem, and stroke thy beard.

See also

• ahem
• haw

Noun

A stitched hem.

Drawing of a sheet metal hem.

hem (plural hems)

1. (sewing) The border of an article of clothing doubled back and stitched together to finish the edge and prevent it from fraying.
2. A rim or margin of something.
   • Shakespeare

     hem of the sea

3. In sheet metal design, a rim or edge folded back on itself to create a smooth edge and to increase strength or rigidity.

Verb

hem (third-person singular simple present hems, present participle hemming, simple past and past participle hemmed)

1. (intransitive) (in sewing) To make a hem.
2. (transitive): To put hem on an article of clothing, to edge or put a border on something.
3. (transitive): To surround something or someone in a confining way.

Derived terms

• hemmer

Pronoun

hem

1. Obsolete form of 'em.
   • William Caxton (1481)

     And wente to the kinge and to the queene, and said to hem with a glad cheer.

   • William Caxton (1485)

     For eyther of hem mayntened.

   • Nisbet, M (1520-1535)

     He prayis hem to lyue releg[ious] lyff[is] and to luk waraly for the cummyng of the lord.

   • John Florio (1578)

     ‘What thinke you of this English, tel me I pray you.’ ‘It is a language that wyl do you good in England but passe Dover, it is woorth nothing.’ ‘Is it not used then in other countreyes?’ ‘No sir, with whom wyl you that they speake?’ ‘With English marchants.’ ‘English marchantes, when they are out of England, it liketh hem not, and they doo not speake it.

   • Edmund Spenser (1579)

     Tho to the greene wood they speeden hem all.

   • Ben Jonson (1598)

     Except we make hem such.

   • John Marston (1605)

     They go forth on Holydays and gather hem by the seashore.

   • Andrew Marvell (1661)

     The mayor and alderman or any six of hem.

Inflection

See also

• herwiha
• û

Related terms

• ehem

Pronoun

hem

1. inflection of hi:
   1. accusative
   2. dative
2. dative of het

Pronoun

hem

1. inflection of si (“they”):
   1. accusative
   2. dative

Pronoun

hem (nominative he)

1. Third-person plural accusative pronoun: them.
   • 14th c. Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales. General Prologue: 9–11.

     And smale foweles maken melodye,

     That slepen al the nyght with open eye-

     (So priketh hem Nature in hir corages);

     And many little birds make melody

     That sleep through all the night with open eye

     (So Nature pricks them on to ramp and rage)

   • 1407, The Testimony of William Thorpe, pages 40–41

     And with alle these men I was ofte homli and I comownede with hem long tyme and fele, and so bifore alle othir men I chees wilfulli to be enformed bi hem and of hem, and speciali of Wiclef himsilf, as of the moost vertuous and goodlich wise man that I herde of owhere either knew.

2. (reflexive) themselves.

References

• “hem, (pron.)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 12 June 2018.

Pronoun

hem

1. Alternative form of him

References

• “him, (pron.)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 6 May 2018.

See also

Declension

Related terms