hele

Etymology 1

verb

1. Obsolete form of heal.

Etymology 2

From Middle English helen, helien, from Old English helan (“to conceal, cover, hide”, strong verb) and helian (“to conceal, cover, hide”, weak verb), from Proto-West Germanic *helan, from Proto-Germanic *helaną (“to conceal, stash, receive stolen goods”) and Proto-Germanic *haljaną (“to hull, conceal”); both from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to hide”). Cognate with Scots heal (“to cover, hide, conceal”), Saterland Frisian hela (“to conceal”), Dutch helen (“to conceal”), German hehlen (“to deal in stolen or illegal goods”), Swedish häla (“hide”) and hälare (“fence, peddler of stolen goods”), as well as with helmet and Latin cēlō (“conceal”). Related to hole, hull.

verb

1. (rare, now chiefly dialectal or archaic) To hide, conceal, and keep secret, especially for a secret society (such as the masons).
   … the lion is in most gentleness and nobility, when his neck and shoulders be heled with hair and main. 1893, Robert Steele, Mediaeval Lore from Bartholomew Anglicus, Online edition, Gutenberg Project, published 2004
   Men could look up and understand something of the star-Spangled arch of blue, but the reversed arch or crypt beneath was to the eyes a flesh 'heled, concealed, and never revealed,' […] 1921, The Builder: A Journal for the Masonic Student, page 208
   The second is concerned more especially with the obligation of the Neophyte Grade in which the Candidate is pledged to hele, conceal and never reveal the secret art and hidden mysteries of Masonry. 2019, William Harvey, Albert G. Mackey, Arthur Edward Waite, Symbolism and Discourses on the Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft and Master Mason Blue Lodge Degrees, page 36
2. (rare, now especially in the phrase "hele in") To cover or conceal (a seedling, plant, roots, etc).
   At the time of earthing the potatoes by the double mould-plough, turnip seed is sown, and thus "heled;" the turnips arrive at maturity before the potatoes, and are pulled without damage to them. 1861, The Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, page 275
   […] and for this reason had better be taken up and heled in, in a safe place, where there is no danger from standing water. 1881, Report of the New Hampshire Deptartment of Agriculture, page 252
   Take your vines, in a pail with water, or wrapped in a wet cloth, from the place where they were heled-in,* to the holes; […] On receiving your vines from the nursery, they should be taken out of the box, without delay, and heled-in, which is done as follows: In a dry and well protected situation, a trench is made in the soil […] The plants are then set thickly together in the trench […] and soil taken from [another trench] is thrown into the first, covering the roots carefully, 1895, Illustrated Descriptive Catalogue of American Grape Vines, by the Bush & Son & Meissner firm of vinegrowers in Bushberg, Mo., page 43
   As soon as received the plants should be unpacked and if they can not be planted at once they should be "heled in" i. e., placed in a trench and thoroughly watered. 1913 May, Nebraska Horticulture, page 8