Hence (?), adv. [OE. hennes, hens (the s is prop. a genitive ending; cf. -wards), also hen, henne, hennen, heonnen, heonene, AS. heonan, heonon, heona, hine; akin to OHG. hinnan, G. hinnen, OHG. hina, G. hin; all from the root of E. he. See He.]
1.
From this place; away.
"Or that we
hence wend."
Chaucer.
Arise, let us go hence.
John xiv. 31.
I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles.
Acts xxii. 21.
2.
From this time; in the future; as, a week hence.
"Half an hour
hence."
Shak.
3.
From this reason; as an inference or deduction.
Hence, perhaps, it is, that Solomon calls the fear of the Lord the beginning of wisdom.
Tillotson.
4.
From this source or origin.
All other faces borrowed hence
Their light and grace.
Suckling.
Whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts?
James. iv. 1.
⇒ Hence is used, elliptically and imperatively, for go hence; depart hence; away; be gone. "Hence with your little ones." Shak. -- From hence, though a pleonasm, is fully authorized by the usage of good writers.<-- raus! -->
An ancient author prophesied from hence.
Dryden.
Expelled from hence into a world
Of woe and sorrow.
Milton.
© Webster 1913.
Hence (?), v. t.
To send away.
[Obs.]
Sir P. Sidney.
© Webster 1913.