| 释义 |
▪ I. kent, n.1 Sc. and north.|kɛnt|
[Origin uncertain; in sense identical with the Kentish quant; for the difference in vowel cf. kell and call (caul n.1).]
1. ‘A long staff, properly such a one as shepherds use for leaping over ditches or brooks’ (Jam.); a long pole used in leaping ditches, climbing mountains, etc.; a leaping pole.
1606in Pitcairn Crim. Trials II. 519 The said W. R., haifing ane grit grene Kent and squarit batoun in his hand. a1700N. Burn in Ramsay Tea-t. Misc. (1733) II. 196 Shepherds..With cur and kent upon the bent. 1721Ramsay Richy & Sandy 19 A better lad ne'er lean'd out o'er a kent. 1890Blackw. Mag. Sept. 328/2 He placed his long pole or kent in front of him.
2. A punting-pole.
1844Richardson Borderer's Table Bk. VII. 175 note, When the stream is of equal depth, a kent or pole is used. [So on the Tweed and Teviot in 1850.]
▪ II. kent, n.2 Whaling.
= cant n.1 11. Also attrib.
1820W. Scoresby Acct. Arctic Regions II. 296 The fat of the neck, or what corresponds in other animals with the neck, is called the Kent. 1837R. Hamilton Nat. Hist. Whales 106 A band of blubber two or three feet in width, encircling the fish's body at what is the neck in other animals, is called the kent, because by means of it the fish is turned over or kented. To this band is fixed the lower extremity of a combination of powerful blocks, called the kent-purchase, by means of which, the whole circumference of the animal is, section by section, brought to the surface. 1875Ure's Dict. Arts III. 451 A band of fat, however, is left around the neck [of the whale], called the kent, to which hooks and ropes are attached for the purpose of shifting round the carcass.
▪ III. kent, ppl. a. Sc.
Also 6 kennit.
[ken v.1]
Northern and western Sc. form of kenned, known.
1513Douglas æneis i. x. 52 My childe, cleith the with ȝone kennit [v.r. kend] childis visage. c1787Burns To a Painter, You'll easy draw a weel-kent face. 1801Macneill Poet. Wks. (1856) 146 (E.D.D.) Far frae ilk kent spot she wandered. 1888Stevenson in Scribner's Mag. May 635 A gentleman..should mean a man of family, ‘one of a kent house’.
▪ IV. kent, v.1 Sc. and north. dial.
[f. kent n.1; cf. cont v.]
intr. and trans. To punt.
1820Scott Abbot xxxv, They will row very slow,..or kent where depth permits, to avoid noise. 1846Richardson Borderer's Table Bk. VII. 175 A man had just been kented over the Tweed.
▪ V. kent, v.2 Whaling.
= cant v.2: cf. kent n.2
1820W. Scoresby Acct. Arctic Regions II. 296 By means of it, the fish is turned over or kented. 1856J. H. Steggall Real Hist. Suffolk Man (1859) 230, I might speak of ‘kenting’ the animal, that is turning him round, so that other layers of blubber might be cut off. |