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Defn vs Dern - What's the difference?

defn | dern |

As an abbreviation defn

is definition.

As a noun dern is

a secret; secrecy.

As an adjective dern is

hidden; secret; private.

As a verb dern is

to hide; secrete, as in a hole.

defn

English

Abbreviation

(Abbreviation) (head)
  • definition

    • Anagrams

    *

    dern

    English

    Alternative forms

    *

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) dern, derne, from (etyl) dyrne, . See below.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A secret; secrecy.
  • A secret place; hiding.
  • An obscure language.
  • Darkness; obscurity.
    • Derived terms
    *

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) dern, derne, from (etyl) dyrne, .

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • 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 (etyl) dernen, .

    Verb

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

    Etymology 4

    Uncertain.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (UK, dialect) A gatepost or doorpost.
    • 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''.., Charles Kingsley, ''Westward Ho! , Ch. XIV, How Salvation Yeo Slew the King of the Gubbings.
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