Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Hessian

Hes′sian (hĕsh′an), a. Of or relating to Hesse, in Germany, or to the Hessians.

Hessian boots, or Hessians, boot of a kind worn in England, in the early part of the nineteenth century, tasseled in front. Thackeray. — Hessian cloth, or Hessians, a coarse hempen cloth for sacking. — Hessian crucible. See under Crucible. — Hessian fly (Zoöl.), a small dipterous fly or midge (Cecidomyia destructor). Its larvæ live between the base of the lower leaves and the stalk of wheat, and are very destructive to young wheat; — so called from the erroneous idea that it was brought into America by the Hessian troops, during the Revolution.

Hes′sian, n. 1. A native or inhabitant of Hesse.

2. A mercenary or venal person. [U. S.]

☞ This use is a relic of the patriot hatred of the Hessian mercenaries who served with the British troops in the Revolutionary War.

3. pl. See Hessian boots and cloth, under Hessian, a.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.