▪ I. hake, n.1
(heɪk)
Also 6 haake, 8 hack.
[Known only from 14th (?) or 15th c.; origin uncertain. Mod. Norw. has hakefisk, lit. ‘hookfish’, applied to fish, as the salmon or trout, with a hooked under-jaw.]
1. A gadoid fish, Merlucius vulgaris, resembling the cod. Also extended to the genus Merlucius.
| [a 1310 in Wright Lyric P. viii. 31 Alle heo lyven from last of lot, ant are al hende ase hake in chete.] c 1430 Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy) 201 (Mätz.) Hire skyn is tendyr for to towche, As of an howndfyssh or of an hake. 1555 Eden Decades 273 A fysshe..whiche we caule haddockes or hakes. 1573–80 Baret Alv. H i Haake, fish, Pagrus vel Pagurus. 1624 Capt. Smith Virginia vi. 212 Hake you may haue when the Cod failes in Summer. 1769 Pennant Zool. III. 157 The hake is in England esteemed a very coarse fish. 1880 Gunther Fishes 542 The ‘Hake’ is found on both sides of the Atlantic..to a length of four feet. It is caught in great numbers, and preserved as ‘Stock-fish’. 1885 J. S. Kingsley Stand. Nat. Hist. III. 275 The popular name current in England is hake, but in the United States the prefix ‘silver’ is generally added, to distinguish it from the species of Phycis..It is also frequently called whiting, New England whiting, or Old England hake. |
b. Applied to other gadoid fish, esp. to species of the genus Phycis found on the coast of North America, and to the New England Lotella rhacinus.
| 1871 Hutton Fishes N. Zealand 116 No. 74 (Lotella rhacinus)..has been termed the Hake. 1883 Cassell's Nat. Hist. V. 274 The greater Fork Beard or Forked Hake..a rare fish in British seas, but ranges round the European coasts and into the Mediterranean. 1885 J. S. Kingsley Stand. Nat. Hist. III. 273 Three species are common along the eastern American coast, Phycis chuss, Phycis tenuis, and Phycis regius. The first two are of some economical importance..they are generally known as hakes. |
2. transf. (See quots.)
| 1855 Robinson Whitby Gloss. s.v., ‘A greedy hake’, a grasping discontented person. 1876 Mid. Yorksh. Gloss., Hake..also, a grasping, covetous person. |
3. attrib. and Comb., as hake-broil, hake-fishery, hake-hook; hake's dame, an English fish, Phycis blennioides; also called forkbeard, forked hake.
| 1864 Couch Fishes Brit. Isl. III. 125 Greater Forkbeard. Hake's Dame, Forked Hake, Goat fish. 1865 Whittier Snowbound 244 The hake-broil on the driftwood coals. 1895 Bickerdyke Sea-Fishing (Badm. Libr.) 390 There are important hake fisheries in Irish waters..and also off Devon and Cornwall. Ibid. 152 A large hake hook. |
▪ II. hake, n.2 dial.
[prob. a. ON. haki (Sw. hake, Da. hage) hook; cf. also MDu. hake, Du. haak, also mod.Ger. haken hook. In OE. haca occurs only as a gloss of ‘pessulus’ bolt (Epinal Gl. 803).]
1. A hook, esp. a pot-hook.
(The sense in the first quot. is very doubtful.)
| 1488 Ld. Treas. Acc. Scot. I. 100 For cordis and hakkis and ryngis to hyng vp the claythis. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Hake, a Pot-hook. 1795 Chron. in Ann. Reg. 31 The tea-kettle, and the hake on which it was suspended. 1806 Bloomfield Wild Flowers, The Horkey vii, On went the boilers, till the hake Had much ado to bear 'em. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Hake, a pothook. |
2. The draught iron of a plough; = cops 3.
| 1787 W. Marshall E. Norfolk (1795) Gloss., Hakes, sb. pl. the copse or draught-irons of a plow. 1846 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. VII. i. 34 One end being fastened to the ‘hake’ of the plough, and the other to the top of the coulter. 1863 Morton Cycl. Agric. II. 720–7 (E.D.S.) Hake (Suff.), the dentated iron head of a plough. |
▪ III. hake, haik, n.3
[Known only from 18th c.; derivation obscure: possibly from the root hak- of hatch and heck, if not merely a dialectal variation of the latter. It appears to be the prevalent form for sense 1 (which also occurs as hack n.2 4); in the other senses it seems to be merely a by-form of hack and heck.]
1. A wooden frame suspended from the roof for drying cheeses; a wooden frame on which fishes are dried; a wooden frame for holding plates. Sc.
| 1768 Ross Helenore 77 A hake was frae the rigging hanging fu' Of quarter kebbocks, tightly made and new. 1880 J. Skelton Cruiket Meg xiii. 145 Plates suspended in a haik above the dresser. 1891 A. Matthew Poems & Songs 24 Hung like haddocks on a hake. 1895 Month Sept. 53 The hake was a triangle of wood studded with nails, and from every nail there hung a haddock. |
2. A frame for drying bricks; = hack n.2 3.
| 1840 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. I. iii. 352 They [tiles] are placed one upon another on the hakes or piles in the sheds till placed in the kiln. 1843 Ibid. IV. ii. 371 Set them to dry on frames (provincially termed hakes), covered with cloth, supported on iron standards. |
| attrib. 1886 W. A. Harris Techn. Dict. Fire Insur., Hake-houses, air-drying sheds, for bricks. |
3. A rack for cattle to feed at; = heck.
| 1863 Morton Cycl. Agric. II. 720–7 (E.D.S.) Hecks or Hakes (Lothians), sparred boxes for holding fodder for sheep. 1891 H. Stephens Bk. Farm III. 387 Haiks to be fitted over troughs in byres and in cattle-courts. |
4. A latticed framework in a mill-race or the like to prevent anything but the water from passing through; = heck.
| 1891 Pall Mall G. 26 Sept. 2/2 At the ‘backwater hakes’ adjoining these mills the workmen sometimes break a bar or two, and the salmon coming from the sea get into the dam and are secured in very large numbers. |
▪ IV. † hake, n.4 Obs.
Also 6 hack(e, hag(g, 7 haque.
[app. an abbreviation of haquebut, hagbut, originally in half-hake or demi-hake = half hackbut, applied to a firearm of shorter length than the hackbut. It would appear that for this the simple hake, haque, or hag was soon substituted.]
A short fire-arm used in the 16th c.
| c 1538 [see half-hake]. 1541 [see demi-hake]. 1548 Act 2 & 3 Edw. VI, c. 14 An Acte was made in the [33rd] yere of the late Kinge..for some libertye to shoote in Handegonnes hakes and hacquebuytes. 1556 J. Heywood Spider & F. lii. 22 Daggs, handgoons, hakes, hagbussers, culuerins, slings. 1607 Cowell Interpr., Haque is a handgunne of about three quarters of a yard long. 1656 in Blount Glossogr. |
▪ V. hake, haik, n.5 Sc. and north. dial.
(heɪk)
[f. hake v.1]
(See quots.)
| a 1529 Skelton Col. Cloute 252 Howe some synge Lætabundus At euery ale stake, With, welcome hake and make. 1825 Jamieson, Haik, a term used to denote a forward, tattling woman. 1828 Craven Dial., Hakes, a lounging idle fellow. |
▪ VI. hake, haik, v.1 Sc. and dial.
(heɪk)
[Origin obscure: cf. Du. haken to long, to hanker.]
1. intr. ‘To go about idly from place to place.’
| c 1450 Henryson Mor. Fab. 73 The caller cryed; How, haike vpon hight, Hald draught, my dowes. 1674–91 Ray N.C. Words 34 To Hake, to sneak or loiter. 1703 Thoresby Lett. to Ray (E.D.S.B. 17) A haking fellow, an idle loiterer. 1811 Willan W. Riding Gloss., Haik, hake, to lounge, to loiter. 1828 Craven Dial., Hake, to go about idly..about is generally added. 1855 Robinson Whitby Gloss., To hake, to lay wait for news; to ‘go haking about’, prying. |
2. intr. To go, advance; ‘to tramp, trudge or wend one's way: the act implies considerable exertion or endurance’ (Jam. Suppl.).
| c 1450 Henryson Mor. Fab. 32 The Muske, the little Mouse with all her might, With haste shee haked vnto that hill of hight. c 1475 Rauf Coilȝear 644 In that hardy in hy, he haiket to that hall For to wit gif Wymondis wynning was thair. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Hake, to toil; particularly in walking... ‘He has been haking and hattering all day long’. |
3. trans. To urge; to pester.
| 1855 Robinson Whitby Gloss. s.v., ‘He hakes my very heart out.’ 1892 M. C. Morris Yorksh. Folk-t. 319 To hake is to follow with inquiries, to annoy, to pester, to hurry on. ‘Hake 'em away!’ i.e. urge them on almost faster than they are able to go. |
▪ VII. hake, v.2
[f. hake n.1]
intr. To fish for hake. Hence ˈhaking vbl. n.
| 1895 J. Bickerdyke Fishing (Badm. Libr.) xiii. 390 The hakeing season is principally in the autumn and winter. |