herse

herse (plural herses)

1. A kind of gate or portcullis, having iron bars, like a harrow, studded with iron spikes, hung above gateways so that it may be quickly lowered to impede the advance of an enemy.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Farrow to this entry?)

2. Obsolete form of hearse (a carriage for the dead)
3. (obsolete) A funeral ceremony.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Edmund Spenser to this entry?)

herse (third-person singular simple present herses, present participle hersing, simple past and past participle hersed)

1. Alternative form of hearse
   • George Chapman, Iliad.

     The Grecians spritefully drew from the darts the corse, And hers'd it, bearing it to fleet.

   • Richard Crashaw

     The house is hers'd about with a black wood, Which nods with many a heavy-headed tree: Each flower's a pregnant poison, try'd and good; Each herb a plague.

   • William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act 3, Scene 1.

     I would my daughter were dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear. O, would she were hers'd at my foot, and the ducats in her coffin.

• Esher, Rhees, Sheer, heers, here's, heres, sheer

Latin hirpex.

• ^{(aspirated h)} IPA^(key): /ɛʁs/

herse f (plural herses)

1. harrow (device for breaking up soil)
2. portcullis (gate in the form of a grating)
3. grate, grill (especially to block large objects floating down a river)
4. candlestick, candelabrum (with a triangular base and spikes to hold large candles)
5. stage lighting instrument, luminaire that disperses light over a stage
6. (heraldry) portcullis

herse

1. first-person singular present indicative of herser
2. third-person singular present indicative of herser
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of herser
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of herser
5. second-person singular present imperative of herser

• “herse” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).