Word.ws English Dictionary

hield

hield verb: to bend; incline; tilt (as a water-vessel or ship); heel.

Verb

hield (third-person singular simple present hields, present participle hielding, simple past and past participle hielded)

  1. (transitive) To bend; incline; tilt (as a water-vessel or ship); heel.
  2. (transitive) To pour out; pour.
  3. (transitive) To throw; cast; put.
  4. (intransitive) To bow; bend; incline; tilt or cant over.
  5. (intransitive) To decline; sink; go down.
  6. (intransitive) To yield; give way; surrender.

Noun

hield (plural hields)

  1. An inclination; a cant.
  2. (UK, dialectal) An incline; slope.
  3. A decline; decrease; wane.

Synonyms of hield

28 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of hield

Forms of hield

Verb
third-person singular presenthields
present participlehielding
past participlehielded
pasthielded
alternative formheeld
alternative formheald
alternative formheild
alternative formhild
alternative formhyld
alternative formheld
alternative formhelde
Noun
pluralhields

Origin of hield

From Middle English heelden, helden, from Old English hieldan, heldan (“to lean, incline, slope, force downwards, bow or bend down”), from Proto-West Germanic *halþijan, from Proto-Germanic *halþijaną (“to bend, incline, pour, empty”), from Proto-Indo-European *kel- (“to tilt, tip, incline”). Cognate with Dutch hellen (“to incline”), Low German hellen (“to incline”), Middle High German helden (“to incline”), Danish hælde (“to tilt, lean, slant, slope”), Swedish hälla (“to tilt, pour”), Icelandic halla (“incline, lean sideways, heel over”), Icelandic hella (“to pur”). See also heel.

From Middle English held, from Old English hielde (“slope, declivity”), from Proto-Germanic *halþijōn, *halþijō (“inclination, slope”), from Proto-Indo-European *kel- (“to tilt, tip, incline”). Cognate with German Halde (“slope”), Danish hæld (“an incline, slope”).

Questions about hield

What does hield mean?
Hield means to bend; incline; tilt (as a water-vessel or ship); heel.
What part of speech is hield?
Hield can be a verb or a noun.
What is the past tense of hield?
The past tense of hield is hielded.

Words near hield in the dictionary

  1. Hiedler
  2. Hieflau
  3. hieing
  4. hielaman
  5. hielamans
  6. hield
  7. hielded
  8. hielding
  9. hields
  10. hielmite
  11. hiemal

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hield (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: “hield.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hield. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.