Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition


Dern

Dern

,
Noun.
[Etymol. uncertain.]
A gatepost or doorpost.
[Local Eng.]
C. Kingsley.

Dern

,
Adj.
[See
Dearn
,
Adj.
]
1.
Hidden; concealed; secret.
[Obs.]
“Ye must be full dern.”
Chaucer.
2.
Solitary; sad.
[Obs.]
Dr. H. More.

Webster 1828 Edition


Dern

DERN

,
Adj.
Solitary; sad; cruel.

Definition 2024


dern

dern

English

Alternative forms

Noun

dern (plural derns)

  1. (now chiefly dialectal) A secret; secrecy.
  2. (now chiefly dialectal) A secret place; hiding.
  3. (now chiefly dialectal) An obscure language.
  4. (now chiefly dialectal) Darkness; obscurity.
Derived terms

Etymology 2

From Middle English dern, derne, from Old English dyrne, dierne (hidden, secret, retired, obscure, remote, eluding detection, concealed, deceitful, evil, magical), from Proto-Germanic *darnijaz (hidden, masked), from Proto-Indo-European *dher(ǝ)-, *dhrē- (to hold, hold tight, support). Cognate with Old Frisian dern, dren (hidden, secret), Old Saxon derni (hidden, secret), Old High German tarni (hidden).

Adjective

dern (comparative more dern, superlative most dern)

  1. (now chiefly dialectal) Hidden; secret; private.
    • Dr. H. More, Immortal, of the Soul
      Now with their backs to the den's mouth they sit, / Yet shoulder not all light from the dern pit.
    • J. R. Drake, Culprit Fay
      Through dreary beds of tangled fern, / Through groves of nightshade dark and dern.

Etymology 3

From Middle English dernen, dærnen, from Old English dyrnan, diernan (to keep secret, conceal, hide, restrain, repress, hide oneself), from Proto-Germanic *darnijaną (to conceal), from Proto-Indo-European *dher(ǝ)-, *dhrē- (to hold, hold tight, support). Cognate with Old Saxon dernian (to conceal), German tarnen (to camougflage, disguise). See also darn, tarnish.

Verb

dern (third-person singular simple present derns, present participle derning, simple past and past participle derned)

  1. (transitive, now chiefly dialectal) To hide; secrete, as in a hole.
    • H. Miller
      He at length escaped them by derning himself in a fox-earth.
  2. (intransitive, now chiefly dialectal) To hide oneself; skulk.
    • T. Hudson
      But look how soon they heard of Holoferne / Their courage quail'd, and they began to derne.

Etymology 4

Uncertain.

Noun

dern (plural derns)

  1. (Britain, dialect) A gatepost or doorpost.
    • Charles Kingsley, Westward Ho!, Ch. XIV, How Salvation Yeo Slew the King of the Gubbings
      So I just put my eye between the wall and the dern of the gate, and I saw him come up to the back door []

Old Irish

Verb

·dern

  1. first-person singular present subjunctive prototonic ro-form of do·gní