to fold back and sew down the edge of (cloth, a garment, etc.); form an edge or border on or around.
to enclose or confine (usually followed by in, around, orabout ).
hemmed in by enemies.
an edge made by folding back the margin of cloth and sewing it down.
the edge or border of a garment, drape, etc., especially at the bottom.
the edge, border, or margin of anything.
Architecture. the raised edge forming the volute of an Ionic capital.
the utterance or sound of “hem.”
a sound or pause of hesitation.
His sermon was full of hems and haws.
to utter the sound “hem.”
to hesitate in speaking.
an edge to a piece of cloth, made by folding the raw edge under and stitching it down
short for hemline
to provide with a hem
to enclose or confine
(intr) to utter this sound
to hesitate in speaking or in making a decision
What does hem- mean? Hem- is a combining form used like a prefix meaning “blood.” It is used in many medical terms, especially in pathology. Hem- comes from the Greek haîma, meaning “blood.”Hem- is a variant of hemo-, which loses its -o- when combined with words or word elements beginning with vowels. The spelling haem- is chiefly used in British English. Want to know more? Read our Words That Use hemo- article. Other variants of hem- used like hem- are hema-, hemato-, and hemat-. As with haem-, all of these combining forms are often spelled with an additional a in British English, as in haemo-, haema-, haemato-, and haemat-. Historically, these forms have been spelled with a ligature of the a and e, as in hæm-. Closely related to hem- are -aemia, -emia, -haemia, and -hemia, which are combined to the ends of words to denote blood conditions. You can learn all about the specific applications for each of these forms at our Words That Use articles for them.
First recorded before 1000; Middle English hem(e), Old English hem, probably akin to ham “piece of enclosed land, enclosure”; see origin at home
First recorded in 1520–30; imitative
When kids grow taller, their parents sometimes have to let out the hem in their pants so they'll be long enough. The hem is the very bottom, folded edge of a piece of clothing. Most of your clothes have at least one hem in them — at the ends of your sleeves, the bottom of your skirt, or along the edge of your t-shirt. When a person sews a hem, whether he's making a dress or a pair of curtains, he folds a very small amount of fabric under two or three times and stitches along the edge in a straight line. In Old English, the word hem means "a border."
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In Allentown, Pennsylvania, the GOP vacated its Hispanic outreach office in January 2023, a few months after the midterm election, according to the landlord, Hem Vaidya.
From Seattle Times • Apr. 26, 2024
Orquesta Nueva Revolucion, La Revancha, El Mariachi Cielito Lindo and DJ Hem are among the acts slated for this free community event for ages 21 and older only.
From Los Angeles Times • May 1, 2023
“I think consumers are quite sympathetic now,” said Petrus Palmér, the founder of Hem.
From New York Times • Aug. 20, 2022
"I was often asked the question - why Old Hem?"
From BBC • Mar. 14, 2022
“Do you know how to cross-stitch? Hem? Can you do backstitching by hand?”
From "Orphan Train" by Christina Baker Kline
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
