hew – English verb conjugation

English verb forms of hew

Nominal Forms

Infinitive: to hew
Participle: hewed; hewn
Gerund: hewing

Cognates

-

Indicative

Present

Ihew
youhew
he;she;ithews
wehew
youhew
theyhew

Perfect

Ihave hewed; hewn
youhave hewed; hewn
he;she;ithas hewed; hewn
wehave hewed; hewn
youhave hewed; hewn
theyhave hewed; hewn

Past

Ihewed
youhewed
he;she;ithewed
wehewed
youhewed
theyhewed

Pluperfect

Ihad hewed; hewn
youhad hewed; hewn
he;she;ithad hewed; hewn
wehad hewed; hewn
youhad hewed; hewn
theyhad hewed; hewn

Future

Iwill hew
youwill hew
he;she;itwill hew
wewill hew
youwill hew
theywill hew

Future Perfect

Iwill have hewed; hewn
youwill have hewed; hewn
he;she;itwill have hewed; hewn
wewill have hewed; hewn
youwill have hewed; hewn
theywill have hewed; hewn

Subjunctive

Present

Ihew
youhew
he;she;ithew
wehew
youhew
theyhew

Perfect

Ihave hewed; hewn
youhave hewed; hewn
he;she;ithave hewed; hewn
wehave hewed; hewn
youhave hewed; hewn
theyhave hewed; hewn

Imperfect

Ihewed
youhewed
he;she;ithewed
wehewed
youhewed
theyhewed

Pluperfect

Ihad hewed; hewn
youhad hewed; hewn
he;she;ithad hewed; hewn
wehad hewed; hewn
youhad hewed; hewn
theyhad hewed; hewn

Conditional

Present

Iwould hew
youwould hew
he;she;itwould hew
wewould hew
youwould hew
theywould hew

Perfect

Iwould have hewed; hewn
youwould have hewed; hewn
he;she;itwould have hewed; hewn
wewould have hewed; hewn
youwould have hewed; hewn
theywould have hewed; hewn

Imperative

youhew
weLet's hew
youhew

Progressive (Continuous) Forms

Indicative

Present

Iam hewing
youare hewing
he;she;itis hewing
weare hewing
youare hewing
theyare hewing

Perfect

Ihave been hewing
youhave been hewing
he;she;ithas been hewing
wehave been hewing
youhave been hewing
theyhave been hewing

Past

Iwas hewing
youwere hewing
he;she;itwas hewing
wewere hewing
youwere hewing
theywere hewing

Pluperfect

Ihad been hewing
youhad been hewing
he;she;ithad been hewing
wehad been hewing
youhad been hewing
theyhad been hewing

Future

Iwill be hewing
youwill be hewing
he;she;itwill be hewing
wewill be hewing
youwill be hewing
theywill be hewing

Future Perfect

Iwill have been hewing
youwill have been hewing
he;she;itwill have been hewing
wewill have been hewing
youwill have been hewing
theywill have been hewing

Conditional

Present

Iwould be hewing
youwould be hewing
he;she;itwould be hewing
wewould be hewing
youwould be hewing
theywould be hewing

Perfect

Iwould have been hewing
youwould have been hewing
he;she;itwould have been hewing
wewould have been hewing
youwould have been hewing
theywould have been hewing

Other

Verbs conjugated like 'hew'

abandon, abduct, abear, aberr, abject, abord, abort, abound, abraid, abray, abrook, abscind, abscond, absist, absorb, abstain, abstract, accend, accent, accept, etc. (List truncated at 20 verbs)

Verbs similar to 'hew'

chew, dew, haw, hem, hen, hep, hex, jew, Jew, lew,

Synonyms & Antonyms

Synonyms

cut
chop, hack, sever, fell
form
make, shape, fashion

Antonyms

form
deform, destroy, devastate, demolish

Additional Information

Phrasal Verbs

Etymology

1. O.E. heawan "to chop, hack, gash" (class VII strong verb; past tense heow, pp. heawen), earlier geheawan, from P.Gmc. *khawwanan (cf. O.N. hoggva, Du. houwen, Ger. hauen "to cut, strike, hew"), from PIE base *qau- "to strike, beat" (cf. O.C.S. kovo, Lith. kauju "to beat, forge;" L. cudere "to strike, beat;" M.Ir. cuad "beat, fight"). Weak pp. hewede appeared 14c. Seemingly contradictory sense of "hold fast, stick to" (in phrase hew to) developed from hew to the line "stick to a course," lit. "cut evenly with an axe or saw," first recorded 1891.
2. From Middle English hewen, from Old English hēawan, from Proto-West Germanic *hauwan, from Proto-Germanic *hawwaną, from Proto-Indo-European *kewh₂- (“to strike, hew, forge”).
3. Cognate to West Frisian houwe (“to hew”), Cimbrian hauan (“to dig”), Dutch houwen (“to hew”), German hauen (“to hew”), Luxembourgish haen (“to chop”), Danish hugge (“to hew”), Faroese høgga (“to hew”), Icelandic höggva (“to hew”), Norwegian Bokmål hogge, hugge (“to hew”), Norwegian Nynorsk hogga (“to hew”), Swedish hugga (“to hew”).
4. Sense 3 derives from the phrase hew to the line (literally “cut evenly with an axe or saw”). See: Proto-Germanic '*hawwaną', Cimbrian 'hauan', Dutch 'houwen', German, old spelling 'hauen', Luxembourgish 'haen', Danish 'hugge', Faroese 'høgga', Icelandic 'höggva', Norwegian 'hogge', Norwegian, nynorsk 'hogga', Swedish 'hugga'.

Verbs referencing "hew"

English hag, German, old spelling hauen, Luxembourgish haen, Old Saxon hauwan, Danish hugge, Norwegian, nynorsk hogga, Cimbrian hauan.

Sample Sentences

  • Hew them to pieces, hack their bones asunder[…] [1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene vii]:]
  • A favourite at the Old Bailey, and eke at the Sessions, Mr. Stryver had begun cautiously to hew away the lower staves of the ladder on which he mounted. [1859, Charles Dickens, chapter V, in A Tale of Two Cities, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC:]
  • So that all men despised him in the streets, / He hewed the living rock, with sweat and tears, [1892, Rudyard Kipling, “Evarra And His Gods”, in Barrack-Room Ballads and Other Verses, 3rd edition, London: Methuen & Co. […], →OCLC, page 163:]
  • My ways are hard and rough, and my arms are strong and tough, / And I hew the dizzy pine till darkness falls; [1912, Robert W[illiam] Service, “The Logger”, in Rhymes of a Rolling Stone, Toronto, Ont.: William Briggs, →OCLC:]
  • She flung back the fortnight on his hands as if he had been an idler indifferent to dates, instead of an active young diplomatist who, to respond to her call, had had to hew his way through a very jungle of engagements! [1912, Edith Wharton, The Reef, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton and Company:]
  • Among other things he found a sharp hunting knife, on the keen blade of which he immediately proceeded to cut his finger. Undaunted he continued his experiments, finding that he could hack and hew splinters of wood from the table and chairs with this new toy. [1912 October, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Tarzan of the Apes”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as chapter 6, in Tarzan of the Apes, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, June 1914, →OCLC:]
  • to hew out a sepulchre
  • Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousnesse, ye that seeke the Lord: looke vnto the rocke whence yee are hewen, and to the hole of the pitte whence ye are digged. [1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 51:1:]
  • Wisedome hath builded her house: she hath hewen out her seuen pillars. [1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 9:1:]
  • rather polishing old works than hewing out new [1734 December 19, Alexander Pope, letter to Jonathan Swift:]
  • The oak he had hauled was being hewed into shape by a neighbour who knew how, and every wagon that carried a log to the city to be dressed at the mill brought back timber for side walls, joists, and rafters. [1911, Gene Stratton-Porter, The Harvester:]
  • In 1974, I spoke of poetry as “hewn from the commonest living substance” as a doorframe is hewn of wood. [2003 April 26, Adrienne Rich, “Hewn from the living words”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:]
  • Constructed by a firm named Posiva, Onkalo has been hewn into the island of Olkiluoto, a brief bridge’s length off Finland’s south-west coast. [2022 December 15, Samanth Subramanian, “Dismantling Sellafield: the epic task of shutting down a nuclear site”, in The Guardian:]
  • Few men measured up to his standard of righteousness; he hewed to the line. [1905, Albert Osborn, John Fletcher Hurst: A Biography, Jennings & Graham, page 428]
  • Inside the stories usually hewed to a consistent formula: no matter how outlandish and weird the circumstances, in the end everything had to have a natural, if not plausible, ending—frequently, though not always, involving a mad scientist. [1998, Frank M. Robinson, Lawrence Davidson, Pulp Culture: The Art of Fiction Magazines, Collectors Press, Inc., →ISBN, page 103:]
  • Faculty members and students alike were buzzing with the fashionable nostrums that dominated U.S. education discourse in the late sixties, […] These hewed to the recommendations of the Plowden Report, […] [2008, Chester E. Finn, Troublemaker: A Personal History of School Reform Since Sputnik, Princeton University Press, →ISBN, page 28:]
  • Hewing to the old comedy convention of beginning a speech by randomly referencing something in eyesight, Homer begins his talk about the birds and the bees by saying that women are like refrigerators: they’re all about six feet tall and weigh three hundred pounds and make ice cubes. [2012 May 27, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “New Kid on the Block” (season 4, episode 8; originally aired 11/12/1992)”, in The Onion AV Club:]
  • King recovered the rights on the condition that he'd stop publicly disparaging Kubrick's version. "For a long time I hewed that line," he told CBS News in June. "And then Mr. Kubrick died. So now I figured, what the hell. I've gone back to saying mean things about it." [2013 October 2, Alex Pappademas, “Leuqes! LEUQES! LEUQES! – The Shining sequel and what it says about Stephen King”, in Grantland.com, retrieved 16 Oct 2013:]