▪ I. hill, n.
(hɪl)
Forms: 1 hyll, 2–4 hul, 3–5 hull(e, 3–7 hil, 4–5 hel(l, 4–6 hyl, hyll(e, 4–7 hille, (6 yll), 3– hill.
[OE. hyll str. masc. and fem. = LG. hull, Fris. hel, MDu. hille, hil, hul:—OTeut. *hulni-z, pre-Teut. *kuln{iacu}-s; cf. Lith. kilnus high, kalnas hill, L. collis hill, celsus lofty, culmen top, from ablaut-stem kel-, kol-, k'l-.]
1. a. A natural elevation of the earth's surface rising more or less steeply above the level of the surrounding land. Formerly the general term, including what are now called mountains; after the introduction of the latter word, gradually restricted to heights of less elevation; but the discrimination is largely a matter of local usage, and of the more or less mountainous character of the district, heights which in one locality are called mountains being in another reckoned merely as hills. A more rounded and less rugged outline is also usually connoted by the name.
In Great Britain heights under 2,000 feet are generally called hills; ‘mountain’ being confined to the greater elevations of the Lake District, of North Wales, and of the Scottish Highlands; but, in India, ranges of 5,000 and even 10,000 feet are commonly called ‘hills’, in contrast with the Himalaya Mountains, many peaks of which rise beyond 20,000 feet. The pl. hills is often applied to a region of hills or highland; esp. to the highlands of northern and interior India.
| c 1000 ælfric Hom. I. 576 Hi huntiað hi of ælcere dune and of ælcere hylle. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 129 Uppan þan hulle synai. c 1200 Ormin 12055 Þatt hill þatt wass swa wunnderr heh. a 1225 Ancr. R. 178 Euer so þe hul is more & herre, so þe wind is more þeron. a 1300 Cursor M. 13690 Mont oliuet it es an hill Þat iesus hanted mikel till. 1340 Ayenb. 5 Ine þe helle of Synay. 13.. E.E. Allit. P. A. 787 On þe hyl of Syon. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. Prol. 5 In a Mayes Morwnynge on Maluerne hulles Me bi-fel a ferly. c 1400 Mandeville (1839) iii. 16 There is a grete Hille that men clepen Olympus. 1432–50 tr. Higden (Rolls) I. 423 There be hilles in Snawdonia of a grete altitude..whiche hilles men of that cuntre calle Eriri, that soundethe in Englishe the hilles of snawe. 1480 Caxton Chron. Eng. lix. 43 Fast besyde salysbury upon an hull. 1559 W. Cuningham Cosmogr. Glasse 177 Aetna, the burning hil. 1630 R. Johnson's Kingd. & Commw. 69 Yea, in the ridge of their highest hils (mountaines indeed I cannot terme them) you shall find pooles. 1645 Boate Irel. Nat. Hist. (1652) 81 Whereas..other Languages..have two severall words for to signifie those observable heights..The English language useth one and the same word for both, calling hils as well the one as the other..but that sometimes the word small or great is added. Now because this..would cause some confusion..that hath made us restrain it to one of the sorts, and to call hils only the lesser sort. 1784 Cowper Task ii. 91 The hills move lightly, and the mountains smoke, For He has touched them. 1842 Tennyson Day-Dream, Departure i, O'er the hills, and far away Beyond their utmost purple rim. 1879 F. Pollock Sport Brit. Burmah I. 99 All inhabited hills varying from 1,500 ft. to 4,000. Ibid. II. 74 Men who came from the Nepaul hills, whose home was..at an elevation certainly not less than 10,000 feet. 1881 J. F. T. Keane Six Months Meccah 1 The foot-hills of the approach to a range of mountains. 1888 R. Kipling (title) Plain Tales from the Hills. |
b. Often contrasted with
dale,
plain. (In this use
hill occurs in the
sing. without article.)
hill and dale: also, applied to any markings or groovings likened to hills and dales;
spec. used
attrib. to denote that manner of making gramophone records, or the records themselves, in which the undulations are cut in a vertical plane by the recording stylus. Also, applied to the alternating ridges and hollows of waste rock, etc., which are created by open-cast mining or ironstone working; also
attrib.| c 1380 Sir Ferumb. 3997 Prykynge ouer hulle & pleyn, Til he cam to Charlemeyn. c 1440 Gesta Rom. xxxiv. 134 (Harl. MS.) Then the sonne..toke hir with him, and Ronne to-gedir ouer hillis and dalis, til tyme that thei come to the castell. c 1580 J. Jeffere Bugbears iii. iii. in Archiv Stud. Neu. Spr. (1897) XCVIII, Ylls, wodes and dales. 1590 Spenser F.Q. i. ii. 8 But every hil and dale, each wood and plaine. 1630 R. Johnson's Kingd. & Commw. 639 When it is Summer in the Hils, it is Winter in the plaines. 1667 Milton P.L. viii. 262 About me round I saw Hill, Dale, and shadie Woods. 1850 Tennyson In Mem. lxxix, And hill and wood and field did print The same sweet forms in either mind. 1918 in Webster Add. 1929 Wilson & Webb Mod. Gramophones ii. 34 This form of record has several advantages over the hill-and-dale cut. 1931 News Chron. 20 Mar. 15/2 A graph, whose hills and dales represent maximum and minimum velocity of each of a series of strokes. 1949 Hansard, Commons 6 Dec. 1835 The whole countryside is disfigured by deep cuttings and large tracts of what is known as hill and dale—impassable areas of heaped limestone. Ibid. 1844 We do not really know enough about hills and dales to be quite satisfied in all cases. 1964 A. Nelson Dict. Mining 218 Hill-and-dale formation.., a term applied to the ridges and hollows along the surface of dumped material (usually over-burden) at an opencast mine. |
c. After
up,
down, used without the article: see
down,
downhill, etc.
| 1667 Milton P.L. iv. 777 Half way up Hill. 1879 F. T. Pollok Sport Brit. Burmah II. 195 He had gone down hill. Ibid. II. 207, I followed..up hill and down dale, but never saw him more. |
d. Proverbs and sayings.
† to get the hill, to get vantage-ground (
obs.).
| c 1305 St. Lucy 126 in E.E.P. (1862) 105 Euere heo lai stille as an hul. 1647 Trapp Comm. Rom. vii. 19 Corruption, edg'd with a temptation, gets as it were the hill, and the winde, and, upon such advantages, too oft prevaileth. 1654 Whitlock Zootomia 292 A good Cause and Miscarriage meet oftner than Hills. 1819 Metropolis I. 58 Why, he's as old as the Hills. 1844 Dickens Mart. Chuz. xxxv, All this time, Martin was cursing Mr. Pecksniff up hill and down dale. 1857 Trench Proverbs i. (ed. 4) 21 Do in hill as you would do in hall. 1892 Bowen in Law Times Rep. LXVIII. 127/2 The law of estoppel by deed is as old as the hills. |
e. over the hill: having passed the prime in professional ability, physical beauty, etc. Chiefly
U.S.| 1950 N.Y. Herald Tribune 6 Dec. 35/2 He has lost his punch... He's a lot farther over the hill than I was when I hung up the gloves in 1927. 1952 M. R. Rinehart Pool xxxii. 259 The flawless skin goes, the lovely eyes fade, and she knows she is over the hill. 1957 I. Cross God Boy (1958) xxiii. 197 As they say about boxers who are getting on in years, she is over the hill. 1962 N.Y. Times Bk. Rev. 17 June 20/3 Must you feel ‘over the hill’ after 40? 1972 H. Kemelman Monday Rabbi took Off ii. 24 When a rabbi gets to be around fifty, his chances of getting another job are not so good. He's like over the hill. |
2. fig. Something of enormous mass; something not easily mounted or overcome.
| c 1440 Jacob's Well (E.E.T.S.) 6 Ryȝt so, þis watyr & þis flood of þe gret curs flowyth hyȝe in-to þe hylles of prowde & ryche folk. 1644 Milton Sonn. to Virtuous Young Lady, With those..That labour up the hill of heavenly Truth. 1738 Wesley Hymn, ‘The Voice of my Beloved’ i, O'er Hills of Guilt and Seas of Grief, He leaps. 1851 Willmott Pleas. Lit. §21 (1857) 135 The hill of knowledge and fame was rapidly climbed. |
3. a. A heap or mound of earth, sand, or other material, raised or formed by human or other agency.
Cf. also
ant-, dung-,
mole-hill, etc.
| 1297 [see ant-hill 1]. c 1320 [see dung-hill 1]. c 1340 Cursor M. 23221 (Fairf.) If a hille of fire ware made & þorou chaunce þou in hit slade. c 1450 Merlin xviii. 288 Ther was hilles of dede men and horse hem beforn. 1587 L. Mascall Govt. Cattle (1662) 283 Moules..spoyle any faire meddow..in casting up hils. Ibid. 289 Casting a great hill as big as two barrowfuls. 1590 Spenser F.Q. ii. vii. 6 He rose for to remove aside Those pretious hils [of gold] from straungers envious sight. 1654 Whitlock Zootomia 313 Looking down on the world as an Ant-hill. 1784 Cowper Task iv. 346 The wain..appears a moving hill of snow. 1834 H. Miller Scenes & Leg. xix. (1857) 282 She clutched her hands into a hill of dried weed. 1887 Kent Gloss., Hill, a heap of potatoes or mangold wurzel. |
b. A heap formed round a plant by banking up or hoeing (see
hill v.
2 2). Also, the cluster of plants on level ground.
Cf. a hill of beans (
bean n. 6 e).
| 1572 L. Mascall Plant. & Graff. (1592) 83 Then againe cast vp the earth about your hills, and cleansing them from all weedes..so let them rest till your Poles may be set therein. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. ii. (1586) 62 b, When the Hoppes..are cutte downe close to the grounde, and the hils being againe raised, are covered with doung. 1775 B. Romans Nat. Hist. Florida 120 A man ought to go through the field, and pull up those plants that look least promising leaving only three plants in each hill. 1799 G. Washington Writ. (1893) XIV. 232 No. 2..is to be..planted with potatoes; whether in Hills, or Drills, may be considered. a 1817 T. Dwight Trav. New Eng. etc. (1821) I. 108 The earth is raised to the height of from four to six inches, around the corn, and is denominated a hill; whence every planting is called a hill of corn. 1843 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. IX. ii. 538 The general mode of planting hops is to place the hills at equal distances. 1854 Trans. Pennsylvania State Agric. Soc. 79 The best corn planter..marks the ground so as to keep the hills in rows in all directions. 1873 J. H. Beadle Undevel. West 570 Each field..contained some three hundred hills of corn. 1884 H. Butterworth Zigzag Journ. Western States 42 Jerry was working like a beaver, and only three hills of potatoes to the square now. 1887 Blackw. Mag. June 815/2 In Virginia..a labourer is required for every 20,000 hills of tobacco. 1964 A. H. Burgess Hops vi. 82 If rooted sets..are unobtainable, cuttings can be used for planting the [hop] garden. When this is done two or three cuttings should be planted at each hill. |
c. The rising ground on which ruffs assemble at the breeding season; an assemblage of ruffs.
| 1768 Pennant Zool. (1770) IV. 22 When a fowler discovers one of these hills, he places his net over night. 1859 H. C. Folkard Wild-fowler lix. (1875) 294 During the breeding season they [ruffs] frequent drier grounds, and assemble on small hillocks..An experienced fenman soon finds out their blood-stained hills. Ibid. 295 Frequently taking the whole hill at a single fold of the net. 1875 ‘Stonehenge’ Brit. Sports i. ix. §1 A ‘hill’ of ruffs. |
d. Her. A charge representing a hill, usually vert.
| 1828 in Berry Encycl. Her. I. 1889 Elvin Dict. Her. p. lii, Three Hills, as in the arms of Brinckman. 1966 Scott-Giles & Brooke-Little Boutell's Heraldry (rev. ed.) 301 Hill, or Hillock, a green mount. |
e. A nitro-glycerine factory.
| 1897 Pearson's Mag. IV. 150/2 You have now reached the bottom of the ‘hill’—all nitro-glycerine factories are called ‘hills’. 1921 Dict. Occup. Terms (1927) §149 Nitroglycerine hillman, an explosive worker engaged on repetition work in nitroglycerine manufacture. |
4. attrib. and
Comb. a. Of or pertaining to a hill or hills, as
hill-brow,
hill-cop,
hill-crest,
hill-face,
hill-foot,
hill-ground,
hill-line,
hill-name,
hill-pasture,
hill-range,
hill-ridge,
hill-slope,
hill-wash.
b. Of or pertaining to the hill-country of India, as
hill-appointment,
hill-station, etc.
c. For a hill or hill-country, as
hill-chair,
hill-gun. Also, pertaining to the rearing and tending of sheep in hilly country.
d. Inhabiting or frequenting hills, situated or held on a hill, as
hill-bamboo,
hill-convent,
hill-culture,
hill-fair,
hill-fastness,
hill-grass,
hill-horse,
hill-house,
hill-kangaroo,
hill-kid,
hill-pony,
hill-priest,
hill-temple,
hill-tent,
hill-town,
hill-tribe,
hill-village. Also
hill-fort, etc.
| 1896 Westm. Gaz. 30 Dec. 3/2 There were only two *hill appointments possible at the time. |
| 1827 D. Johnson Ind. Field Sports 232 The best kind of shafts are *hill bamboos which have no hollow. |
| 1913 D. H. Lawrence Love Poems 40 The warm hay from The *hill-brow. 1954 J. R. R. Tolkien Fellowship of Ring 146 The north end of the hill-brow. |
| 1861 in Hare 2 Noble Lives (1893) III. 175 About eleven she set off again in her *hill-chair. |
| 1878 Symonds Many Moods, Riviera 11 How well In this *hill-convent glides for them the day! |
| 13.. E.E. Allit. P. A. 790 Þe apostel hem segh..Arayed to þe weddyng in þat *hyl coppe. |
| 1936 Discovery June 179/2 This midden culture, which we call Sotho, differs..in nearly every respect from our Shona or *Hill culture. 1950 Webster Add., Hillculture, a system of agriculture utilizing erosion-preventing crops that are ecologically and economically best suited for sloping or hilly (often sub-marginal) land. |
| 1886 C. Scott Sheepfarming 116 A successful hill lambing depends very much upon..the condition of the ewes at that period. *Hill ewes are never in too high condition. |
| 1883 Longm. Mag. Nov. 71 The sportsman..has gone up the *hill-face. |
| 1851 Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 329 A *hill fair (that is where the fair is held upon a hill away from a town). |
| 1841 Thoreau Jrnl. 13 Feb. (1962) I. 211/2 His *hill-farm is poor stuff. 1886 C. Scott Sheepfarming 101 Hill farms... Hill stocks should always be fixtures on the farm. |
| 1946 Act 9 & 10 Geo. VI c. 73 §1 ‘*Hill farming land’ means mountain, hill and heath land which is suitable for use for the maintenance of sheep of a hardy kind but not of sheep of other kinds, or which by improvement could be made suitable. |
| a 1881 Rossetti House of Life v, Tender as dawn's first *hill-fire. |
| 1650 Trapp Comm. Exod. xx. 18 From the *hill-foot where they stood and trembled. 1891 S. C. Scrivener Our Fields & Cities 12 The river winds along the hill-foot. |
| 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. i. (1586) 17 b, It is to be learned, what is best for the *hill ground, what for the valley. |
| 1886 C. Scott Sheepfarming 123 The science of *hill-herding. |
| 1799 J. Robertson Agric. Perth 310 He keeps also fewer *hill-horses, a small species, of which at one time there were vast herds in the highlands. |
| 1935 H. H. Finlayson Red Centre (1952) 40 The short-limbed, broad-chested, sturdy, *hill kangaroos or euros. 1944 Living off Land ii. 27 A number of men are required to capture the wallaby or the euro (hill kangaroo). |
| 1816 Scott Tales My Landlord Introd., What resembled hares were in fact *hill-kids. |
| 1873 W. Cory Lett. & Jrnls. (1897) 343 The crests of the *hill-line are crowned with the domes of the mosques. |
| 1922 E. Ekwall Place-Names Lancs. 28 Very few *hill-names, apart from those which have given names to places, are found in early sources. |
| 1962 Coast to Coast 1961–62 13 Nicholas wanted to..gambol as senselessly as the new lambs in the *hill paddocks. |
| 1799 J. Robertson Agric. Perth 525 All the tenants have a proportionable share of *hill-pasture. |
| 1881 J. T. Fowler in Academy 29 Oct. 334 The *hill-priests and the hedge-priests of the Northern diocese. |
| 1844 Mrs. Browning Duchess May iv, I could see the low *hill-ranges. |
| 1845 Stocqueler Handbk. Brit. India (1854) 265 A promontory, or long *hill-ridge projecting into a basin. |
| 1874 Whittier Voices Freedom, Palestine 29 Lo, Bethlehem's *hill-site before me is seen. |
| 1749 H. Purefoy in Purefoy Lett. 1735–53 (1931) I. 162, I desire you will buy for mee ten ewes & lambs of the little short-legged horned *Hill Sheep. 1841 Penny Cycl. XXI. 358/1 The average weight of the fleece..is now at least 3 lbs. in the hill-sheep, and nearly 4 lbs. in the lowland-sheep. 1886 C. Scott Sheepfarming 103 Hill sheep farming. |
| 1872 Tennyson Gareth & Lynette 181 The damp *hill-slopes. 1908 Daily Chron. 14 May 5/4 On the north side of the valley the hill-slopes are fairly open. 1919 J. Masefield Reynard 97 The hill-slope [seemed] steeper. |
| 1879 F. T. Pollok Sport Brit. Burmah I. 42 Now that European troops are being gradually concentrated on *hill stations. 1958 P. Kemp No Colours or Crest iv. 43 March-Phillipps had served in India..where he had experienced..the glitter of social life in various hill stations. 1969 Filmfare (Bombay) 1 Aug. 31/4 Once, while shooting at a hill station, the entire R.K. unit was staying in a quaint hillside hotel. |
| 1827 G. Higgins Celtic Druids 231 It may be correctly described as a *hill-temple. |
| 1743 Bulkeley & Cummins Voy. S. Seas 89 The Carpenter went up to the *Hill Tent, so called from its situation. |
| 1887 W. S. Pratt in W. Gladden Parish Prob. 433 Even the most humble, untaught player in a struggling *hill-town may fulfill..all the higher duties of his office. 1911 R. Brooke Poems 24 Out of the white hill-town, High up I clamber. 1972 W. Garner Ditto, Brother Rat! xxiii. 172 ‘Tell me about Vauban.’..‘A dilapidated little hill town.’ |
| 1870 Brewer's Dict. Phr. & Fable 406/1 *Hill tribes, the barbarous tribes dwelling in remote parts of the Deccan or plateau of Central India. 1946 Nature 6 July 35/1 Any hill-tribe tends to lead a more or less segregated life. 1972 Nat. Geographic Feb. 271/1 Although often labeled as a ‘hill tribe’, Thailand's Karens occupy both upland and lowland villages. |
| 1905 Daily Chron. 9 Oct. 4/2 The picturesque little *hill-village of Moniaive [in Dumfriesshire]. 1947 Geogr. Jrnl. CX. 79 By no means all hill villages..are in the pastoral zone and many are associated with a fully-developed system of common arable fields. |
| 1936 Nature 29 Aug. 357/2 A *hill⁓wash, some 11 ft. in thickness, contained large numbers of flint artefacts. 1958 F. E. Zeuner Dating Past (ed. 4) 158 The Middle Older Loess of the section is a complex of loessic hillwash material derived from higher up the slope. |
| 1963 Times 13 Feb. 14/7 Should lamb and *hill wool continue to be treated as special cases on social grounds? |
e. Objective, instrumental, and locative, as
hill-climber,
hill-crowning;
hill-born,
hill-girdled,
hill-girt,
hill-surrounded adjs.;
hill-set a. (after
Matt. v. 14), ‘set’ or situated on a hill.
| 1911 E. Pound Canzoni 21 A swelling turbid sea *Hill⁓born and tumultuous. a 1963 C. S. Lewis Poems (1964) 35 The hill-born, earthy spring,..The ripe peach from the southern wall still hot. |
| 1897 Daily News 25 May 5/4 A gentleman..cyclist and champion *hill-climber. |
| a 1758 Dyer Poems (1761) 175 (Jod.) Whose *hill-crowning walls Shine, like the rising Moon thro' wat'ry mists. |
| 1860 All Year Round No. 47. 492/2 A green, nestling, *hill-girt Devonshire valley. |
| 1906 Westm. Gaz. 16 June 12/2 Brown-roofed, *hill-set villages. 1906 Macm. Mag. July 695 Ruler of his tiny hill-set principality. 1907 Westm. Gaz. 9 Aug. 2/4 Our hillset house of prayer. |
| 1881 Jeffries Wood Magic II. vi. 152 The *hill-surrounded plain. |
f. Spec. combs.:
hill-ant, a species that forms ant-hills;
hill-berry, the Deerberry or Wintergreen,
Gaultheria procumbens, of N. America;
hill-bird, (
a) the fieldfare,
Turdus pilaris (Swainson
Prov. Names Birds 1885); (
b) the upland plover or Bartramian sandpiper,
Bartramia longicauda, of North America;
† hill-chapel, a high-place for worship;
hill-climb, the action of climbing hills,
esp. as a test for motor vehicles; so
hill-climbing, also
attrib.;
† hill-digger, one who digs into barrows or tumuli; so
† hill-digging;
hill-engraver, in map-making, one who makes the representations of elevations on an engraved plate; so
hill-engraving;
hill-fever, a kind of remittent fever prevalent in the hill country of India;
hill-folk,
-people, inhabitants or frequenters of the hills, hillmen;
spec. (
a) the Cameronians; (
b) the elves or fairies of the hills;
cf. hillman;
hill-fox, an Indian species of fox inhabiting the hills (
Canis Himalaicus);
hill-gooseberry, a Chinese myrtaceous plant (see
quot.);
hill-king, a king of the mountain-elves;
hill-map, a map showing elevations;
hill-margosa,
hill-mustard (see
quots.);
hill-oat, a species of wild oat,
Avena strigosa;
hill-partridge, a gallinaceous bird of India,
Galloperdix lunulatus;
hill-shading, the lines of shading on a map to represent hills;
hill-spur (see
spur n.1 11);
hill-star, ‘a humming-bird of the genus
Oreotrochilus’ (
Cent. Dict.);
hill-stead, a place on a hill;
hill-tit, a bird of the family Liotrichidæ;
hill-wren, a bird of the genus
Pnoepyga.
| 1747 Gould Eng. Ants 2 The *Hill Ants I so denominate from their usual Place of Residence, the sunny Banks or Sides of Hills. |
| 1535 Coverdale Ezek. vi. 4 The cities shalbe desolate, y⊇ *hillchapels layed waist: youre aulters destroyed. |
| 1905 Westm. Gaz. 6 June 4/2 At the *hill-climb on May 27. 1907 Ibid. 26 Feb. 4/2 The club will organise competitions, hill-climbs, club-runs, and so on. 1971 I. Wagstaff in J. Walton Castrol Guide Motoring Sport x. 70 The object of a hill climb is for drivers..to reach the top of the hill in a shorter time than any other competitor. |
| 1637 Shirley Hide Parke iv. sig. G2, *Hill climbing white-rose, praise doth not lacke. 1861 Mrs. Norton Lady La G. ii. 147 When wild hill-climbing wooed her spirit higher. 1900 [see car n.1 1 e]. 1904 Peel Guardian & Chron. 23 Apr., The venue of the hill-climbing contest has not been fixed. 1908 Westm. Gaz. 19 Mar. 4/1 Its smooth and faultless running and wonderful hill-climbing abilities. 1931 [see decoke v.]. |
| 1522 W. Stapleton in Dawson Turner Trial by Jury etc. (1846) 54 Smith..examining the same Goodred upon *hill digging..If he wolde not confesse to them that he was an *hill-digger, he wold thrust his dagar throwe his chekes. 1847 Norfolk Archæol. I. 53–4. 1887 A. Jessopp in 19th Cent. Jan. 56 The hill diggers of the fifteenth century did their work most effectually. |
| 1900 Geogr. Jrnl. June 589 The employment of *hill-engravers, who are, as already stated, so much required for the completion of the hill-engraving of the 1-inch map. Ibid. 578 Progress of the 1-inch Hill Map of the United Kingdom. |
| 1804 C. B. Brown tr. Volney's View Soil U.S. 234 In Bengal..there are woody eminences, infested..with what is there called the *hill fever. |
| 1814 Scott Wav. xxxvi, He spared nobody but the scattered remnant of *hill-folk, as he called them. 1816 ― Old Mort. iv, The stranger..being, in all probability, one of the hill-folk, or refractory presbyterians. |
| 1838 Penny Cycl. X. 393/1 The Canis Himalaicus, *Hill Fox of the Europeans in the Doon, in Kumaon. 1859 Lang Wand. India 311 During this day's march we shot..a hill fox, a deer, and a wild dog. |
| 1880 C. R. Markham Peruv. Bark 292 The pretty pink-flowered Rhodomyrtus tomentosa, the berries of which are called ‘*hill-gooseberries’. |
| 1884 Child Ballads ii. xli. 361/2 The etin of the Scottish story is in Norse and German a dwarf-king, elf-king, *hill-king, or even a merman. |
| 1866 Treas. Bot. 731/1 M[elia] Azedarach, vulgarly known as the Pride of India..Bead-tree, or *Hill Margosa, is widely diffused over the globe. |
| 1895 Oracle Encycl. I. 539/1 Oriental Bunias, sometimes called ‘*hill-mustard’, was introduced into Britain about one hundred years ago for the sake of its leaves, which are used for feeding cattle. |
| a 1847 Mrs. Sherwood Lady of Manor V. xxix. 65 Anecdotes told by the old Indians of the *hill-people. 1879 F. T. Pollok Sport Brit. Burmah I. 3 Formerly gold was worked for by Shans and other hill people. |
| 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 12 Commonly effected by a system of *hill-shading. |
| 1871 W. Morris in Mackail Life (1899) I. 253, I went about looking for game about the *hill spurs. 1887 Meredith Ballads & P. 88 Down the hillspurs. |
| 1637 Boston Records (1877) II. 18 James Pennyman shall have the *Hilsteade and the marsh ground under it. |
| 1885 H. O. Forbes Nat. Wand. E. Archip. 207, I stalked a pretty little brown *hill-wren (Pnoepyga pusilla). |
▪ II. hill, v.1 Obs. exc. dial. Forms: 3–4
hule,
hile, 4–5
hyl(e, 4–6
hil,
hill(e, 5–6
hyll(e, 4–
hill.
[ME. hulen (ü), hilen, hyllen, hillen, corresp. to an OE. type *hyllan: cf. OS. bi-hullean, OHG. hullan (MHG., mod.G. hüllen), ON. hylja, (hulda, hulit, Da. hylle), Goth. huljan, f. hul-, weak grade of helan: see hele v. It is probable that the ME. word was from Norse.] 1. trans. To cover, cover up; protect. Now
dial.| a 1240 Wohunge in Cott. Hom. 279 Hwer wið þat blisfule blodi bodi þu mihtes hule and huide. c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 102 It mai ben hoten heuene-Rof; It hileð al ðis werldes drof. a 1300 Cursor M. 6802 (Cott.) He has noþer on bak ne bed Clath til hil [v.rr. hile, hule] him. a 1340 Hampole Psalter xvi. 10 Vndire þe shadow of þi wenges hil me. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. vi. 80 Alle þe houses beoþ I-hulet [v. rr. helid; B. hiled, ihyled, helied; C. heled]..Wiþ no led bote wiþ loue. 1496 Dives & Paup. (W. de W.) iv. xxiii. 189/2 Her here wexe soo moche that it hylled and hydde all her bodye. 1530 Palsgr. 585/1 You must hyll you wel nowe anyghtes. 1565 Golding Ovid's Met. i. (1593) 12 Go hil your heads. 1606 J. Raynolds Dolarney's Prim. (1880) 88 So should the earth, his breathlesse body hill. c 1746 J. Collier (Tim Bobbin) View Lanc. Dial. Wks. (1862) 68 A floose of hay..quite hill'd us booath. 1854 A. E. Baker Northampt. Gloss. I. 323 Have you hilled the child up? 1868 B. Brierley Ab-o'-th' Yate on Times & Things (1870) 121 Th' owd lad wur hillin' hissel up nicely. |
b. intr. Of fish: To deposit or cover their spawn.
| 1758 Descr. Thames 29 A noted Place for Roach, Dace, and other small Fish, coming in Spawning Time to Hill, as it is called, otherwise laying their Spawn there in great Quantities. |
c. See
hill v.
2 2.
† 2. To cover from sight; to hide, conceal.
Obs.| a 1225 Ancr. R. 388 Herto ualleð a tale, and on iwrien [v.r. hulet] uorbisne. 1388 Wyclif Prov. x. 12 Charite hilith alle synnes. c 1410 Love Bonavent. Mirr. xiv. (Pynson) E v, Our defautes and trespasses we hyll and hyde. c 1440 J. Capgrave Life St. Kath. iv. 1379 Wype awey þat blyndenesse whiche hath hilled ȝour sight. |
3. Comb. † hilback, the covering of the back,
i.e. clothing (
obs.).
| 1573 Tusser Husb. x. (1878) 23 As interest or vsurie plaieth the dreuil, So hilback and filbellie biteth as euil. |
Hence
hilled ppl. a., covered, armed.
| c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 224 He sped him þider in haste, with hilled hors of pris. |
▪ III. hill, v.2 [f. hill n.] I. trans. 1. To form into a hill or heap; to heap up;
spec. to throw up (soil) into a mound or ridge for planting purposes.
| 1581 Act 23 Eliz. c. 10 §4 Before..such Corn or Grain shall be shocked, cocked, hilled or copped. 1799 A. Young Agric. Linc. xii. 266 Mr. Lloyd is much against hilling of manure. 1851 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XII. ii. 350 It [lime] is fetched from the chalk hills..and ‘hilled’ for 2 or 3 weeks before used, the heap being covered over with earth. 1884 Chesh. Gloss. s.v., I put some manure in and hilled the soil atop of it. 1887 Blackw. Mag. June 822/1 The tobacco-land is hilled up, but scarcely half of it as yet planted. |
b. fig. To heap up, amass.
| a 1618 Sylvester Spectacles xl, When hoord on hoord, when heap on heap he hilleth. 1627–47 Feltham Resolves i. xxxii. 109 When a man shall exhaust his very vitality for the hilling up of fatall gold. 1660 Character Italy 12 Another trick..that helpeth to hill up his fatal riches. |
2. Agric. To cover and bank
up the roots of (growing plants) with a heap of soil; to earth up. (Also
absol.). [This seems to have been
orig. a use of
hill v.
1 to cover (
cf. hele v.
2 2 a), which has become associated with
hill n. 3 b, and so with this verb, the forms being identical.]
| 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. ii. (1586) 62 b, Set in grounde well covered with..moulde, and afterwarde hilled, and so suffered to remaine al Winter. 1601 Holland Pliny I. 523 The skill and feat of baring the roots of trees, and also of hilling or banking them about. 1612 Capt. Smith Map Virginia 16 When it [corn] is growne midle high, they hill it about like a hop-yard. 1773 Hist. Brit. Dom. N. Amer. vi. iii. 123 The [tobacco] plants are set at three or four feet intervals or distances: they are hilled, and kept continually weeded. 1775 Romans Florida 175 The horse hoe..to do the laborious work of the hoe in hilling corn up. 1797 A. Young Agric. Suffolk 89 At Midsummer they hill them [hops]. 1861 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XXII. ii. 305 Hilling, or earthing-up the plant. |
3. To surround with hills.
| 1612 W. Parkes Curtaine-Dr. (1876) 25 Pleasant valleys hil'd on euery side. |
4. To cover with hills or heaps.
| 1808 J. Barlow Columb. vii. 750 Shocks, ranged in rows, hill high the burden'd lands. |
II. intr. † 5. To ascend, rise in or on a slope.
| 1538 Leland Itin. I. 105 Cumming to highe ground and somewhat in sight by hilling I passid a Mile. Ibid. VII. 16 The Soyle of the Ground..is on mayne slaty Roke, and especially the parte of the Towne hilling toward the Castell. |
6. To assemble on rising ground, as ruffs. See
hill n. 3 c.
| 1768 Pennant Zool. (1770) IV. 22 Soon after their arrival in the fens in spring, they [ruffs] begin to hill, i.e. to collect on some dry bank near a flash of water, in expectation of the Reeves, which resort to them. 1859 H. C. Folkard Wildfowler lix. (1875) 294 During spring, when the ruffs hill. Ibid. 295 Taking ruffs when not hilled. |
▪ IV. hill obs. form of
ill,
isle.