▪ I. haggard, n.1
(ˈhægəd)
Also -art.
[cf. ON. heygarðr stack-yard, f. hey hay + garðr garth.]
In Ireland and Isle of Man: A stack-yard.
| 1586 J. Hooker Girald. Irel. in Holinshed II. 44/2 All such cornes as they had in their haggards. c 1645 Howell Lett. II. xxiv, When the Barn was full any one might thresh in the haggard. 1749 Mrs. Delany Life & Corr. (1861) II. 511 We saw great quantities of new corn in the haggards as we came along through Staffordshire. 1848 Act 11 & 12 Vict. c. 69 §2 The malicious burning of houses, barns, haggards, corn, or other articles or effects. 1894 Hall Caine Manxman 107 She could see the barley stack growing in the haggard. |
▪ II. haggard, n.2
(ˈhægəd)
[Absolute use of haggard a. 1.]
1. A wild (female) hawk caught when in her adult plumage. (With some, in 17–18th c. = peregrine falcon.)
| 1567 Turberv. Epitaphs, etc. 15 b, Liue like a haggard still therefore, And for no luring care. 1599 Shakes. Much Ado iii. i. 36 Her spirits are as coy and wilde, As Haggerds of the rocke. 1607 Lingua ii. v. in Hazl. Dodsley IX. 379 A wondrous flight Of falcons, haggards, hobbies, terselets, Lanards and goshawks. 1766 Pennant Zool. (1768) I. 139 The falcon, the falcon gentle, and the haggard, are made distinct Species, whereas they form only one. 1828 J. S. Sebright Observ. Hawking 32 The older hawks are called haggards: it is these that ornithologists have mistaken for a distinct species, calling it the Peregrine Falcon. |
† b. fig. A wild and intractable person (at first, a female); one not to be captured. Obs.
| 1579 Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 74 That if she should yeelde at the first assault, he would thinke hir a light huswife: if she should reiect him scornfully, a very haggard. 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. iv. ii. 39, I wil be married to a wealthy Widdow..which hath as long lou'd me, As I haue lou'd this proud disdainful Haggard. 1680 Ld. Falkland Hist. Edw. II, 67 Their first Act sends Baldock the Lord Chancellour to Newgate, a fit Cage for such a Haggard. |
2. Comb. haggard-tercel; haggard-like, haggard-wise adv.
| 1567 Turberv. Epitaphs, etc. 113 b, That Haggard wise doth loue to liue. 1593 Nashe Christ's T. (1613) 182 Though Christ..hold out neuer so moouing lures vnto vs, all of them (Haggard-like) wee will turne tayle to. c 1620 Roxb. Ball. VII. 423 Haggard like, she me abus'd, another taken, and I refus'd. 1727 Bradley Fam. Dict., Hawk, The Male of a Haggard, the Haggard-Tassel. |
▪ III. † haggard, n.3 Obs.
[? f. hag n.1 after such words as laggard, dotard, etc.]
A hag, a witch.
| 1658 tr. Porta's Nat. Mag. viii. xiv. 232 So children oftentimes effascinate themselves, when their parents attribute it to haggards and witches. 1668 G. Etherege She would if she could iii. i, I protest yonder comes the old haggard. 1715 tr. C'tess D'Anois' Wks. 614 She heard the Voice of a Man, and soon after saw an old Haggard. |
▪ IV. haggard, a.
(ˈhægəd)
Also 6 haggarde, haggred, 6–7 haggart, 6–8 hagard, hagger(e)d.
[Cf. F. hagard, ‘hagard, wild, strange; froward, contrarie, crosse; vnsociaable, vncompanable, incompatible’ (Cotgr.), orig. said of a falcon ‘that preyed for her selfe long before she was taken’. According to some, Normand-Picard for haiard, deriv. of haie ‘hedge’ (‘esprevier hagard est celluy qui est de mue de hayes’ Ménagier 14th c. in Littré). But this is very doubtful.]
1. Of a hawk: Caught after having assumed the adult plumage; hence, wild, untamed; said also of an owl (obs.).
| 1567 Turberv. Epitaphs, etc. 15 The haggarde Hauke That stoopeth to no state. 1583 T. Watson Cent. Loue xlvii. (Arb.) 83 In time the Bull is brought to weare the yoake; In time all haggred Haukes will stoope the Lures. 1602 Segar Hon. Mil. & Civ. iv. xv. 225 Of Falcons some are Gentle and some Haggard. 1604 Shakes. Oth. iii. iii. 260. 1637 B. Jonson Sad Sheph. iii. iii, No Colt is so unbroken! Or Hawk yet half so haggard, or unmann'd! 1682 Otway Venice Preserved i. i, A haggard Owl, a worthless Kite of Prey. a 1734 North Exam. ii. iv. §117 (1740) 292 As Men catch haggard Hawks, to reclaim, and make them fly at other Quarry. 1814 Cary Dante (Chandos) 147 As for the taming of a haggard hawk. |
† 2. transf. and fig. a. Wild, unreclaimed, untrained (often with direct reference to 1). b. ‘Froward, contrarie, crosse, vnsociable’ (Cotgr.).
| 1580 Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 114 Foolish and franticke louers, will deeme my precepts hard, and esteeme my perswasions haggarde. 1583 Stanyhurst æneis i. (Arb.) 29 Late a tempest boysterus haggard Oure ships to Libye land with rough extremitye tilted. 1604 R. Cawdrey Table Alph. (1613), Hagard, wilde, strange, contrary. 1650 B. Discolliminium 21 God hath cast most spirits off his hand of common restraint, and let them fly haggard, till they are stark wild. a 1683 Oldham Elegies (1686) 103 At all alike my haggard Love does fly. 1695 Blackmore Pr. Arth. i. 688 So does the Fiend..rise Through the thick haggair'd Air. |
† 3. In disordered or ragged plumage. Obs. rare.
| 1615 Val. Welshm. (1663) D iij a, The Roman Eagle hangs his haggard wings. 1798 Coleridge Picture 31 The brier and the thorn [shall] Make his plumes haggard. |
† 4. Half-starved; gaunt, lean. Obs. (exc. as included in 5).
| 1630 Davenant Cruel Brother iv. Dram. Wks. 1872 I. 164 The slave is haggard. At supper..his vain appetite Fed at Nero's rate. a 1736 Yalden Fox & Flies (R.), A swarm of half-starved haggard flies, With furie seiz'd the floating prize. 1796 Burke Regic. Peace i. Wks. VIII. 179 The gaunt hagard forms of famine and nakedness. |
5. Of a person: Wild-looking; in early use applied esp. to the ‘wild’ expression of the eyes, afterwards to the injurious effect upon the countenance of privation, want of rest, fatigue, anxiety, terror, or worry.
| [1605 Tryall Chev. i. iii. in Bullen O. Pl. III. 279 Her looks are haggard and obscure, Which makes me doubtfull sheele not stoope to lure.] 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 370 With hagger'd Eyes they stare, Lean are their Looks, and shagged is their Hair. a 1700 ― Theocritus, Despairing Lover (R.), Staring his eyes, and haggard was his look. 1757 Gray Bard i. i, Robed in the sable garb of woe, With haggard eyes the Poet stood. 1853 C. Brontë Villette v, Thin, haggard, and hollow-eyed; like a sitter up at night. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. xi. 77, I had noticed a haggard expression upon the countenance of our guide. |
| fig. and transf. 1735 Somerville Chase iii. 465 His haggard Fancy still with Horror views The fell Destroyer. 1827–44 N. P. Willis She was not there 18 All that tempts the eye and taste, And sets the haggard pulses wild. 1871 Swinburne Songs bef. Sunrise, Bef. Crucifix 2 At this lank edge of haggard wood. 1876 T. Hardy Ethelberta (1890) 72 Till the fire had grown haggard and cavernous. 1883 Stevenson Silverado Sq. 80 From this proposition she recoiled with haggard indignation. |
b. Gaunt or scraggy-looking, from the loss of flesh with advancing years. (App. influenced by hag n.1, as if ‘somewhat hag-like’: cf. hagged 2.)
| 1807 Crabbe Par. Reg. iii. 547 His cheeks were haggard, hollow was his eye. 1840 Miss Mitford in L'Estrange Life (1870) III. vii. 109 To prevent the haggard look which comes upon women who grow thin at fifty. 1858 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. (1865) II. vii. vi. 304 She is getting haggard beyond the power of rouge. |
6. Comb., as haggard-cheeked, haggard-looking, haggard-wild.
| 1794 Burns Friend's Amour viii, Fancy..Reigns, haggard-wild, in sore affright. 1855 Browning Statue & Bust 162 Hollow-eyed and haggard-cheeked. 1886 W. J. Tucker E. Europe 205 Some dozen haggard-looking crones. |