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Hem vs Hew - What's the difference?

hem | hew |

In transitive terms the difference between hem and hew

is that hem is : To surround something or someone in a confining way while hew is to shape; to form.

As nouns the difference between hem and hew

is that hem is an utterance or sound of the voice like "hem", often indicative of hesitation or doubt, sometimes used to call attention while hew is hue; colour.

As verbs the difference between hem and hew

is that hem is to make the sound expressed by the word hem; to hesitate in speaking while hew is to chop away at; to whittle down; to mow down.

As an interjection hem

is used to fill in the gap of a pause with a vocalized sound.

As a pronoun hem

is obsolete form of 'em|lang=en.

hem

English

Etymology 1

A sound uttered in imitation of clearing the throat (onomatopoeia)

Interjection

(en-interj)!
  • Used to fill in the gap of a pause with a vocalized sound.

    • See also

    * ahem * haw

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An utterance or sound of the voice like "hem", often indicative of hesitation or doubt, sometimes used to call attention.
  • * Spectator
    • his morning hems

    Verb

    (hemm)
  • To make the sound expressed by the word hem ; to hesitate in speaking.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Hem , and stroke thy beard.
    Derived terms
    * hem and haw

    Etymology 2

    From Middle English hem, hemm, in turn from Old English hemm and related to Middle High German .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (sewing) The border of an article of clothing doubled back and stitched together to finish the edge and prevent it from fraying.
  • A rim or margin of something.
  • * Shakespeare
    • hem of the sea
  • In sheet metal design, a rim or edge folded back on itself to create a smooth edge and to increase strength or rigidity.
    • Derived terms
    * touch the hem of someone's garment

    Verb

    (hemm)
  • (in sewing) To make a hem.
  • (transitive): To put hem on an article of clothing, to edge or put a border on something.
  • (transitive): To surround something or someone in a confining way.

    • Related terms

    * hemmed * hemming * hemmer

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl) hem, from (etyl) .

    Pronoun

    (English Pronouns)

    • Anagrams

    * ----

    hew

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) hewen, from (etyl) . See also (l).

    Verb

  • To chop away at; to whittle down; to mow down.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Hew them to pieces; hack their bones asunder.
  • * 1912 : (Edgar Rice Burroughs), (Tarzan of the Apes), Chapter 6
    • Among other things he found a sharp hunting knife, on the keen blade of which he immediately proceeded to cut his finger. Undaunted he continued his experiments, finding that he could hack and hew splinters of wood from the table and chairs with this new toy.
  • To shape; to form.
    • to hew out a sepulchre
  • * Bible, Is. li. 1
    • Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn .
  • * Alexander Pope
    • rather polishing old works than hewing out new
  • (US) To act according to, to conform to; usually construed with (to).
  • * 1905 , Albert Osborn, : A Biography , ] Jennings & Graham, [http://books.google.com/books?id=I3UEAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA428&dq=hewed page 428,
    • Few men measured up to his standard of righteousness; he hewed to the line.
  • * 1998 , and Lawrence Davidson, Pulp Culture: The Art of Fiction Magazines , Collectors Press, Inc., ISBN 1-888054-12-3, page 103,
    • Inside the stories usually hewed to a consistent formula: no matter how outlandish and weird the circumstances, in the end everything had to have a natural, if not plausible, ending—frequently, though not always, involving a mad scientist.
  • * 2008 , , Troublemaker: A Personal History of School Reform Since Sputnik , Princeton University Press, ISBN 0-691-12990-8, page 28,
    • Faculty members and students alike were buzzing with the fashionable nostrums that dominated U.S. education discourse in the late sixties,
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2012 , date=May 27 , author=Nathan Rabin , title=TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “New Kid on the Block” (season 4, episode 8; originally aired 11/12/1992) , work=The Onion AV Club citation , page= , passage=Hewing to the old comedy convention of beginning a speech by randomly referencing something in eyesight, Homer begins his talk about the birds and the bees by saying that women are like refrigerators: they’re all about six feet tall and weigh three hundred pounds and make ice cubes. }}
  • *{{quote-web
    • , date =2013-10-02 , first =Alex , last =Pappademas , title =Leuqes! LEUQES! LEUQES!'' – The ''Shining sequel and what it says about Stephen King , site =Grantland.com , url =http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9751517/the-shining-sequel-career-stephen-king , accessdate = 2013-10-16 }}
  • *:King recovered the rights on the condition that he'd stop publicly disparaging Kubrick's version. "For a long time I hewed that line," he told CBS News in June. "And then Mr. Kubrick died. So now I figured, what the hell. I've gone back to saying mean things about it."
    • Derived terms
    * hewer * rough-hew

    Etymology 2

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) hue; colour
    • (Chaucer)
  • (obsolete) shape; form
    • (Spenser)
  • Destruction by cutting down.
  • * Spenser
    • Of whom he makes such havoc and such hew .
    (Webster 1913) English irregular verbs