hempie

hempie noun: a criminal; someone who deserves to be, or is likely to be, hanged.

Noun

hempie (plural hempies)

(Northern England, Scotland, obsolete) A criminal; someone who deserves to be, or is likely to be, hanged.
(Northern England, Scotland, obsolete) A rogue.
- 'Ha, ha, Patie lad!' quo Bessie Elliot, a free-spoken Liddesdale hempy, 'there's a wife com'd for ye the night, Patie lad.'1846, Moses Aaron Richardson, The Borderer's Table Book, volume 7, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne: Printed for the author, page 137
Synonyms:

troublemaker
(Northern England, Scotland, obsolete) A wild, romping girl.
- “Ay, ay,” answered Rob, “she's under lawfu' authority now; and full time, for she was a daft hempie[…]”1817, Sir Walter Scott, Rob Roy

hempie (comparative more hempie, superlative most hempie)

(Northern England, Scotland, obsolete) Deserving of being hanged.

Synonyms:

hangworthy
(Northern England, Scotland, obsolete) Wild; riotous; mischievous.
- The forst one's just as prood as us, / Te see his bonny mate, / An' if thor spared te grow up lads, / They'll fettle real forst-rate; / But if like hempy lads they ﬁght, / We'll heh to keep them doon, / An’ try te myek them byeth as gud / As ony in the toon.1890, Joseph Wilson, “Wor Canny Second-Born!”, in Tyneside Songs and Drolleries, page 255

From hemp + -ie.

What does hempie mean?: Hempie means a criminal; someone who deserves to be, or is likely to be, hanged.
What part of speech is hempie?: Hempie can be a noun or an adjective.
What is the plural of hempie?: The plural of hempie is hempies.

Adapted from Wiktionary: hempie (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: 2026-09-02

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