hence
adverbinterjectionverbcommon in dialogue
- //ˈhɛns//
In the future from now.
adverb
- 1
archaicFrom here, from this place, away.
I'm going hence, because you have insulted me.
Get thee hence, Satan!
O Gertrude, come away: / The sun no ſooner ſhall the Mountaines touch, / But we will ſhip him hence,
Ye men of Galilee! / Why stand ye looking up to heaven, where Him ye ne’er may see, / Neither ascending hence, nor returning hither again?
- 2
archaicFrom the living or from this world.
After a long battle, my poor daughter was taken hence.
- 3
In the future from now.
A year hence it will be forgotten.
[…]And now farewell / Till half an hour hence.
There may be an occasion to do so two years hence.
- 4
As a result; therefore, for this reason.
I shall go to Japan and hence will not be here in time for the party.
The purse is handmade and hence very expensive.
Hence that general is skillful in attack whose opponent does not know what to defend; and he is skillful in defense whose opponent does not know what to attack.
Hence it comes that all armed Prophets have been victorious, and all unarmed Prophets have been destroyed.
Etymology
A later Middle English spelling, retaining the voiceless -s, of hennes (henne + adverbial genitive ending -s), from Old English heonan (“away", "hence”), from a Proto-West Germanic *hin-, from Proto-Germanic *hiz, and Proto-Germanic *-anē. Cognate with Old Saxon hinan, Old High German hinnan (German hinnen), Dutch heen, Swedish hän. Related to Old English her (“here”).
interjection
- 1
obsoleteGo away! Begone!
Zuc[cone]. Hence auant I will marie a woman with no wombe, a creature with two noſes, a wench with no haire rather then remarie thee, […]
Mira[nda]. Beſeech you Father. Proſ[pero]. Hence: hang not on my garments.
verb
- 1
obsoleteTo utter "hence!" to; to send away.
- 2
datedTo depart; to go away.
Forms
- past tense
- henced
- past participle
- henced
- present participle
- hencing
- third person singular
- hences