The AI-powered English dictionary
plural derns
(obsolete) A secret; secrecy.
(obsolete) A secret place; hiding.
(obsolete) An obscure language.
(obsolete) Darkness; obscurity.
comparative more dern, superlative most dern
(obsolete, dialectal) Hidden; secret; private. quotations
Now with their backs to the den's mouth they sit, / Yet shoulder not all light from the dern pit.
1659, Dr. H. More, Immortal, of the Soul
Through dreary beds of tangled fern, / Through groves of nightshade dark and dern.
1819, J. R. Drake, The Culprit Fay
third-person singular simple present derns, present participle derning, simple past and past participle derned
(transitive, obsolete) To hide; secrete, as in a hole. quotations
He at length escaped them by derning himself in a fox-earth.
1865, Hugh Miller, My schools and schoolmasters
(intransitive, obsolete) To hide oneself; skulk. quotations
But look how soon they heard of Holoferne / Their courage quail'd, and they began to derne.
1584, Thomas Hudson, Judith
(UK) A gatepost or doorpost. quotations examples
So I just put my eye between the wall and the dern of the gate, and I saw him come up to the back door […]
1855, Charles Kingsley, Westward Ho!, Ch. XIV, How Salvation Yeo Slew the King of the Gubbings