Dictionary

hagborn en · ADJ

Etymology

From hag + born.

Meanings

1. (archaic, not-comparable) Born of a hag or witch.
   • Ned bites his thumb at her. 'Screw you and your mother and your hagborn dropsical brood, you scrofulous tit-sore slut!' he shouts, already beginning to feel better. 1982, The Granta, page 96:
   • The hagborn creature came up to the captain and raised his right hand, palm out, in a rough salute. 1946, Francis P. Scannell, In Line of Duty, page 39:
   • Pro. […]Then was this Iſland / (Saue for the Son, that he^([sic]) did littour heere, / A frekelld whelpe, hag-borne) not honour'd with / A humane ſhape. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 4:
   • Out, thou freckled whelp ! thou hagborn ! Out, I say ! 1879, Augustus B. Wood, Cupid on Crutches, Or, One Summer at Narragansett Pier, page 113:

Forms