▪ I. † pent, n.1 Obs.
[app. from pent ppl. a.: cf. bent ppl. a. and bent n.2]
1. A place in which water is pent up; a reservoir or enclosed pool. (Cf. pen n.1 3.)
| 1570–6 Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1826) 134 A Pent and Sluyce hath been made, which both open the mouth, and scowre the bottome of the haven. 1587 Fleming Contn. Holinshed III. 1537/2 The harborough was become a pent, out of the which nothing could passe out or in. 1674 Lond. Gaz. No. 940/4 The Sea has broke into the Pent against the Bench, and above it towards Moots Bulwark [at Dover]. 1721 Perry Daggenh. Breach 123 At the..place called the upper Pent. |
2. ? State of being pent; pressure. Cf. pend n.3 and n.4.
| 1674 N. Fairfax Bulk & Selv. 72 In the middlemost, where the pent or bear of it beneath was nothing at all. |
▪ II. pent, n.2
(pɛnt)
[Short for penthouse, or assumed as the first element of it.]
A sloping roof or covering, a penthouse. (In quot. 1760 app. repr. F. pente sloping surface.)
| [1647 G. Daniel Trinarch., Hen. V cxxxvii, As all the Toyle of Princes had beene Spent To force a Lattice, or Subdue a Pinte.] 1754 Remembrancer (1778) V. 487/1 A pent over the base story, and shops, and a little slip of a window to light a closet by the side of the chimnies. 1760 H. Walpole Let. to Earl of Strafford 7 June, Four chambers practised under the pent of the roof. 1883 Holme Lee Loving & Serving I. ii. 22 The pent over it to throw off the rain. 1895 Jrnl. R. Instit. Brit. Archit. 14 Mar. 350 It is well either to have a porch or pent. |
▪ III. pent, pa. pple. and ppl. a.
(pɛnt)
Also 6 pente, arch. ipent, 6–8 arch. ypent.
[In form, pa. pple. of † pend v.2 var. of pen v.1, and so primarily = † pended, penned; but in its sense-development somewhat independent of the vb.]
1. Shut up within narrow limits; closely confined, imprisoned: = penned ppl. a.1 Also fig. (in quot. 1811, Restricted in action, ‘straitened’). Const. (a) as pple., (b) as adj.
| (a) 1555 W. Watreman Fardle Facions ii. ix. 190 This people..pente within narowe boundes. 1579 Spenser Sheph. Cal. Jan. 4 His flock, that had bene long ypent. 1667 Milton P.L. ix. 445 Long in populous City pent. 1728 Pope Dunc. iii. 185 But who is he, in closet close y-pent? 1802 Brookes' Gazetteer (ed. 12) s.v. Lidford, The bridge is thrown over a part of the river that is pent between two high rocks. 1811 W. Taylor in Robberds Mem. (1843) II. 350 Since our American losses, we have been habitually pent to live. 1871 B. Taylor Faust (1875) I. viii. 118 What bliss within this narrow den is pent. |
| (b) 1602 Marston Antonio's Rev. v. iii, The States of Venice Like high-swoln floods drive down the muddie dammes Of pent allegeance. 1626 Bacon Sylva §232 The mingling of Open Air with Pent Air. 1764 Goldsm. Trav. 291 The pent ocean, rising o'er the pile. 1852 M. Arnold Empedocles on Etna i. ii. 182 In vain our pent wills fret. |
b. With in, up, as pple. or adj.
| a 1550 Merie Tales in Skelton's Wks. (1843) I. p. lxxii, I haue ben pent in..at Westminster in prison. 1581 Mulcaster Positions xxxix. (1887) 187 Content to be pent vp within priuate dores. 1622 Callis Stat. Sewers (1647) 54 A River..is a running Stream, pent in on either side with Walls and Banks. 1713 Derham Phys.-Theol. 15 A stagnating, confined, pent-up Air. 1866 J. B. Rose tr. Ovid's Met. 86 The pent-in wave, Chafed by obstruction. 1879 M{supc}Carthy Own Times II. xxvii. 322 A relief to perplexed, pent-up emotion. |
2. Of a place, room, etc.: Shut up, confined. (Const. as pple. or adj.)
| 1594 1st Pt. Contention viii. 21 Go get thee gone,..And in thy pent vp studie rue my shame. 1803 Med. Jrnl. IX. 187 The pent up bed-house, the clothes of infection unventilated and unwashed. 1872 Longfellow Wayside Inn ii. Finale 39 All left at once the pent-up room, And rushed into the open air. |
† 3. Having something pent or closely confined within it; distended or strained by being overfull of something. (Const. as pple. or adj.) Obs.
| 1601 Holland Pliny I. 20 All parchments and such like bladders or skinnes are so pent and stretched with spirit and wind, that they burst withall. 1667 N. Fairfax in Phil. Trans. II. 546 She..found some relief by it, but was after much pent in her wind. 1728 Young Love Fame vi. 30 Thro' dreadful silence the pent heart might break. |
▪ IV. pent
obs. or dial. form of paint.