# hele

Pronunciation: say "HEEL" /hil/

## Verb

1. To cover or conceal a plant's roots, seedling, or stem, usually with soil. *(rare)*
   - Simple: To cover the roots of a plant with soil to keep them safe.
   - _Nurseries hele surplus seedlings in damp earth to keep them alive over winter._
   - _He heled the rose bushes in a shallow trench before the frost arrived._
2. To keep something hidden and undisclosed, especially as a member of the Freemasons or another secret society. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: To hide something and keep it secret, especially as part of a private group.
   - _Initiates vowed to hele the order's mysteries from the uninitiated._
   - _The brethren heled their signs and passwords from the curious._
3. Obsolete form of heal. *(obsolete)* — Obsolete form of heal.
   - Simple: Obsolete form of heal. It is an old spelling of the word, no longer used today.

## Origin

This word comes from Middle English helen, from Old English helan and helian, both meaning 'to conceal, cover, hide.' These trace back through Proto-Germanic to the Proto-Indo-European root *ḱel- ('to hide'), and are related to words like helmet, Latin cēlō ('conceal'), hole, and hull.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/hele (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).