Word.ws English Dictionary

derne

derne is the alternative spelling of dern.

Meaning of dern

Verb

dern (third-person singular simple present derns, present participle derning, simple past and past participle derned)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To hide; secrete, as in a hole.
    • He at length escaped them by derning himself in a fox-earth.1865, Hugh Miller, My schools and schoolmasters
  2. (intransitive, obsolete) To hide oneself; skulk.
    • But look how soon they heard of Holoferne / Their courage quail'd, and they began to derne.1584, Thomas Hudson, Judith

See all 9 meanings of dern

Forms of derne

third-person singular presentdernes
present participlederning
past participlederned
pastderned

Origin of derne

From Old English dyrnan (“to hide”). See dern, dearn (adjective).

Questions about derne

What is derne the alternative spelling of?
Derne is the alternative spelling of dern.

Words near derne in the dictionary

  1. dermovascular
  2. derms
  3. dern
  4. Derna
  5. Dernah
  6. derne
  7. derned
  8. Derner
  9. dernful
  10. dernier
  11. dernier cri

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: derne (page history and authors); dern (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “derne.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/derne. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.