hence Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. adverb (used to introduce a logical conclusion) from that fact or reason or as a result
    so; thus; therefore; thence.
    • therefore X must be true
    • the eggs were fresh and hence satisfactory
    • we were young and thence optimistic
    • it is late and thus we must go
    • the witness is biased and so cannot be trusted
  2. adverb from this place
    • get thee hence!
  3. adverb from this time
    • a year hence it will be forgotten

WordNet

Hence adverb
Etymology
OE. hennes, hens (the s is prop. a genitive ending; cf. -wards), also hen, henne, hennen, heonnen, heonene, AS. heonan, heonon, heona, hine; akin to OHG. hinnan, G. hinnen, OHG. hina, G. hin; all from the root of E. he. See He.
Definitions
  1. From this place; away. "Or that we hence wend." Chaucer.
    Arise, let us go hence. John xiv. 31.
    I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles. Acts xxii. 21.
  2. From this time; in the future; as, a week hence. "Half an hour hence." Shak.
  3. From this reason; as an inference or deduction.
    Hence, perhaps, it is, that Solomon calls the fear of the Lord the beginning of wisdom. Tillotson.
  4. From this source or origin.
    All other faces borrowed hence Their light and grace. Suckling.
    Whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts? James. iv. 1.
    ✍ Hence is used, elliptically and imperatively, for go hence; depart hence; away; be gone. "Hence with your little ones." Shak. -- From hence, though a pleonasm, is fully authorized by the usage of good writers.
    An ancient author prophesied from hence. Dryden.
    Expelled from hence into a world Of woe and sorrow. Milton.
Hence transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To send away. Obs. Sir P. Sidney.

Webster 1913