† harre, har Obs. exc. dial.
Forms: 1 heorr, hior, 3–5 herre, 4–7 harre, 5–6, 9 dial. har.
[OE. heorr (hior) fem. and m., and heorra m.; the former corresp. to MDu. herre, harre, Du. har, harre, fem., the latter to ON. hjarre, -ri m.:—OTeut. types *herrâ- and *herron-.]
1. The hinge of a door or gate; in modern dialect use, the heel of a gate which bears the hinges: cf. harrow n.2
| Beowulf (Z.) 999 Heorras to-hlidene. c 725 Corpus Gloss. 423 Cardo, heor. c 1000 Lamb. Ps. cxlvii. 2 [13] (Bosw.) He ᵹestrangode heorran geata ðinra. c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 113 Ure helende brac þo þe irene herre and alto shiurede þe ȝiaten. c 1386 Chaucer Prol. 550 Ther nas no dore þat he ne wolde heue of harre. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. viii. vi. (1495) 304 As the sharp corner of a dore meueth in the herre. 1483 Cath. Angl. 176/2 An Harre of a dore, cardo. 1513 Douglas æneis ii. ix. [viii.] 72 Furth of har the stapillis hes he bet. 1611 Cotgr., Chardonnereau, the harre of a dore; the peece, band, or plate, that runnes along on the hindge-side of some dores. 1893 Heslop Northumb. Gloss., Har, the upright pieces of a gate known as the back har and the fore har. |
| fig. c 888 K. ælfred Boeth. xxxiv. §7 Seo hior ðe eall god on hwearfaþ. c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 472 Cardenals ben an herre to þe fendis hous. |
2. fig. A cardinal point; an important matter.
| c 1000 Sax. Leechd. III. 84 æfter þam feowor heorren heofenes and eorðan. 1388 Wyclif Prov. viii. 26 Erthe, and floodis, and the heris of the world. c 1440 York Myst. xxxi. 143, I hope we gete some harre hastely at hande. |
3. out of harre: out of joint, out of order.
| a 1327 Pol. Songs (Camden) 318 Wer never dogges there Hurled out of herre. 1390 Gower Conf. II. 139 Wherof this world stant out of herre. c 1440 J. Capgrave Life St. Kath. ii. 891 More out of herre, Þan is a foole þat can not se be-fore. c 1460 Towneley Myst. (Surtees) 195 Alle is out of har, and that shalle he yrk. 1526 Skelton Mangnyf. 921 All is out of harre. |