Hide

How to spell hide

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce hide

What does hide mean?

1. verbTo put or keep something out of sight, or to keep oneself from being seen or found.
2. nounThe skin of a large animal, especially when removed for leather.
3. nounA concealed shelter used by birdwatchers or photographers to observe wildlife without being seen.

Hide in a sentence

• verb

  She tried to hide the birthday present at the back of the wardrobe.

• noun

  The tannery treats each hide before it becomes leather.

• noun

  The reserve has a wooden hide overlooking the lake where rare ducks gather.

• verb

  The children like to hide behind the curtains during the game.

• noun

  A thick buffalo hide was stretched across the wooden frame.

• noun

  They waited quietly in the hide for the herons to return at dawn.

Where does hide come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Hide has two distinct strands that happen to share a spelling. The verb meaning 'to conceal' descends from Old English hȳdan, 'to hide or keep secret', which traces back to a Germanic root and ultimately to an ancient base meaning 'to cover'. The noun meaning 'the skin of an animal' comes from a different Old English word, hȳd, 'skin or pelt', related to the Latin cutis 'skin' and the same family that gives us the word 'cuticle'. Both words were already in everyday English long before the Norman Conquest, which is why the spelling stayed short and Germanic rather than picking up French frills. A third, very British sense, a concealed shelter for watching wildlife, simply reuses the verb. Because the word is so short and phonetically regular, the silent magic-e at the end (signalling the long 'i') is really the only thing a writer needs to remember.

How the word is built

• hide (from Old English hȳdan 'to conceal'); the animal-skin noun is a separate Old English root hȳd 'skin'