herse meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

herse

noun

UK /hɜːs/ · US /hɜɹs/

Etymology From Middle English hierche (“type of harrow”), from Middle French herce, herse. Doublet of hearse.

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.

In the south aisle, on a slab raised on four low shafts and covered by an iron herse, is a fine coloured recumbent effigy of a bishop1848, Benjamin Webb, Sketches of Continental Ecclesiolgy:

herse

noun

Etymology See hearse.

Obsolete Obsolete form of hearse (“a carriage for the dead”).

Obsolete A funeral ceremony.

Dido, my deare, alas! Dead, and lyeth wrapt in lead. O heavie herse!1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “Nouember. Ægloga Vndecima.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC: