Meaning

(obsolete) Sight, view; specifically a distant view at sea..

Definitions by Sense

1. (obsolete) Sight, view; specifically a distant view at sea.
2. (obsolete) The range or extent of vision, especially at sea; (by extension) a marine measure of approximately twenty miles.
3. As little as one can discriminate or recognize; a small portion, a little.
4. present participle and gerund of ken.
5. (zoology, obsolete, rare) A chalaza or tread of an egg (a spiral band attaching the yolk of the egg to the eggshell); a cicatricula.
6. (poetry) A metaphorical compound or phrase, used especially in Germanic poetry (Old English or Old Norse) whereby a simple thing is described in an allusive way.
7. (Northern England) A dry measure equivalent to half a bushel; a container with that capacity.

Example Sentences

Touching the moſt remarkeable things of the Country and our proceeding from the 17 of Auguſt 1585. till the 18. of Iune 1586. we made Roanoack our habitation. The vtmoſt of our diſcouery Southward was Secotan as we eſteemed 80. leagues from Roanoacke. The paſſage from thence was thought a broad ſound within the maine, being without kenning of land, yet full of flats and ſhoulds that our Pinnaſſe could not paſſe, […]

And becauſe in the beginning of my Trouble, when in the midſt of the Tempeſt, I had a kenning of the Harbour, which I hope now by your Majeſty's Favour I am entring into; I made a tender to your Majeſty of two Works, a Hiſtory of England, and a Digeſt of your Laws: as I have performed a Part of the one; ſo I have herewith ſent your Majeſty, by way of an Epiſtle, a New Offer of the other.

"Saul of my pody, put you are wrang there, my friend," answered Robin, with composure; "it is your fat Englishmen that eat up our Scots cattle, puir things." / "I wish there was a summat to eat up their drovers," said another; "a plain Englishman canna make bread without a kenning of them."

Scylley is a Kenning, that is to ſay about an xx. Miles from the very Weſteſte Point of Cornewaulle.

The obſcure text, of which the light is only to be ſeen by groping our way through "antres vaſt," and at times through "deſarts idle" of earth beneath, is frequently ſo highly elevated in the page, that it is barely entitled to [John] Milton's appellation of darkneſs viſible; and now and then it ſoars even above this, mounting (to uſe an old phraſe,) beyond a kenning.

Word Forms

• kennings

Synonyms for kenning

Related Words

When Should You Use Kenning?

Use kenning when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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