Definition
HIDE carries two distinct legal meanings, one archaic and one cross-referential:
1. (Land measure; Old English law) A unit of land measurement representing the amount of land that could be worked by one plow in a year, or alternatively, the amount sufficient to support one family or the occupants of a mansion-house. The hide was not a fixed acreage — estimates range from 60 to 100 acres — and its actual extent was determined by local custom and soil quality rather than any uniform national standard. Associated with the hide was the compound term "hide and gain," an old English expression applied specifically to arable land.
2. (Criminal and tort law) To conceal oneself or another person, or to secrete property, so as to frustrate legal process, evade creditors, or obstruct justice. In this sense, "hide" is not independently defined as a term of art but operates as a descriptive verb within doctrines of concealment, abscondence, and fraudulent transfer. Anderson's Dictionary treats it as essentially synonymous with "abscond" and "conceal," directing researchers to those entries rather than defining it independently.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): To put something in a place where it will be out of sight or harder to discover; to put oneself in a place where one will be out of sight or harder to find.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): To conceal or withdraw from sight; to put out of view; to secrete; to withhold from knowledge; to keep secret; to shelter or remove from danger.
The common meaning of "hide" maps reasonably onto its legal uses in the concealment context — but entirely fails to anticipate its primary historical legal meaning as a unit of land measurement. A researcher encountering "hide" in an Anglo-Saxon charter, Domesday record, or early English conveyancing document and reading it as a verb of concealment will badly misread the source. The land-measure meaning is the dominant legal meaning in historical sources.
Common Confusion
The two meanings share no relationship and cannot be inferred from each other. "Hide" as a land measure and "hide" as an act of concealment are false cognates in legal research: identical in spelling, utterly different in meaning, and separated by the context of the source. The risk of confusion is highest when researchers encounter "hide" in medieval or early modern English legal documents without recognizing that land measurement terminology is in play. Additionally, the compound "hide and gain" appears in Coke on Littleton (Co. Litt. 85b) and may be encountered in treatise research; it refers to arable land, not to any act of concealment or acquisition in the modern sense.
Why It Matters in Research
The land-measure meaning of "hide" is essentially obsolete in modern legal practice but is essential vocabulary for anyone working in Anglo-Saxon law, Domesday Book research, medieval English conveyancing, or early English property history. The hidage system — taxation and assessment based on the number of hides held — underlies a significant body of early English fiscal and feudal records. The variable acreage of the hide (60–100 acres depending on locality) means that a hide in one county cannot be assumed equal to a hide in another; local custom controlled, and researchers should not treat the term as yielding a precise modern acreage.
For the concealment meaning: "hide" itself generates no independent doctrine in the corpus. Its legal significance is derivative — researchers should follow Anderson's cross-references to ABSCOND and CONCEAL, where the developed legal standards, elements, and case law reside. The verb "hide" may appear in statutes or judicial opinions describing conduct, but the operative doctrine will be organized under concealment, fraudulent conveyance, obstruction, or abscondence headings.
The compound "hide and gain" appears in Coke on Littleton and may surface in early English property treatises. Researchers should not expect modern secondary sources to gloss this term; the primary source reference in Co. Litt. 85b is the starting point.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (both editions) treats "hide" almost entirely as a land measure, devoting its definition to the plow-land meaning and the "hide and gain" compound. The second edition adds useful texture — the family-support alternative definition and the explicit acknowledgment that acreage was "determined by local usage" — that the first edition lacks. Both editions omit any treatment of "hide" as a verb of concealment.
Anderson's Dictionary takes the opposite approach, ignoring the land-measure meaning entirely and treating "hide" purely as a cross-reference to concealment-related terms. This division reflects the dictionaries' different audiences and periods: Black's was attentive to historical English law; Anderson's was oriented toward American legal practice, where the land-measure meaning had no operative relevance.
Neither dictionary is complete on its own for this term. Researchers working in historical English land law should rely on Black's (2nd Ed.) as the starting point and extend to specialized historical sources; researchers working in American concealment doctrine should proceed directly to the ABSCOND and CONCEAL entries.
Jurisdictional Note
The land-measure meaning of "hide" has no operative significance in American law. It is relevant only in English legal history and in jurisdictions tracing land titles through English medieval records. The concealment meaning is jurisdiction-neutral as a descriptive matter, but the specific legal consequences of hiding — tolling of statutes of limitations, fraudulent conveyance liability, obstruction charges — vary significantly by jurisdiction and are governed by the doctrine under which the conduct is charged, not by the word "hide" itself.