halse
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Northern England[hoːs]
halse noun: the neck; the throat. Also the alternative form of hawse.
Noun
halse (plural halses)
Verb (1)
halse (third-person singular simple present halses, present participle halsing, simple past and past participle halsed)
- To fall upon the neck of; hug; embrace.
- soo the Kyng took a lytel hackney and but fewe felauship with him vntyl he came vnto sir Tristrams pauelione / and whanne syre Trystram sawe the Kynge / he ranne vnto hym and wold haue holden his styrope / But the kynge lepte from his hors lyghtly / and eyther halsed other in armes1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “xxj”, in Le Morte Darthur, book VIII
Verb (2)
halse (third-person singular simple present halses, present participle halsing, simple past and past participle halsed)
Verb (3)
halse (third-person singular simple present halses, present participle halsing, simple past and past participle halsed)
- To haul; to hoist.
Proper noun capitalized: Halse
Halse
- A small village in Greatworth and Halse parish, West Northamptonshire district, Northamptonshire, previously in South Northamptonshire district (OS grid ref SP5640).
- A village and civil parish in Somerset, England, previously in Somerset West and Taunton district and Taunton Deane district before that (OS grid ref ST1428).
- A surname.
Also used as
halse is also the alternative form of hawse.
Forms of halse
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | halses |
| alternative form | hawse |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | halses |
| present participle | halsing |
| past participle | halsed |
| past | halsed |
| alternative form | haulse |
| alternative form | halsh |
| alternative form | hose |
Origin of halse
From Middle English hals, from Old English heals (“neck, prow of a ship”), from Proto-West Germanic *hals, from Proto-Germanic *halsaz (“neck”), from Proto-Indo-European *kols-, *ḱols- (“neck”). Cognate with Dutch hals (“neck, throat”), German Hals (“neck, throat”), Norwegian hals (“neck, throat”), Swedish hals (“neck, throat”), Latin collum (“neck”).
From Middle English halsen, halchen, from Old English *halsian, *healsian (“to embrace”, literally “to fall upon the neck of”), from heals (“neck”). See above. Cognate with Old Saxon helsjen (“to embrace”), Old High German halsōn (German halsen (“to jibe”)), Icelandic hálsa (“to embrace”).
From Middle English halsen, halsien (“to beseech, adjure”), from Old English healsian, hālsian (“to entreat earnestly, beseech, implore”), from Proto-Germanic *hailisōną (“to greet”), from Proto-Indo-European *kailo-, *kailu- (“whole, safe”). Cognate with Middle High German heilsen (“to predict”), Swedish hälsa (“to greet”), Icelandic heilsa (“to salute”). More at whole.
Words formed from halse
Words that rhyme with halse
Questions about halse
- What does halse mean?
- Halse means the neck; the throat.
- What part of speech is halse?
- Halse can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce halse?
- Halse is pronounced [hoːs] (Northern England).
- What is the plural of halse?
- The plural of halse is halses.
Words near halse in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: halse (page history and authors); Halse (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.
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Cite this entry: “halse.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/halse. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.