Hes″sian (?), a. Of or relating to Hesse, in Germany, or to the Hessians.
Hessian boots, orHessians, boot of a kind worn in England, in the early part of the nineteenth century, tasseled in front. Thackeray. — Hessian cloth, orHessians, 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.