▪ I. continent, a.
(ˈkɒntɪnənt)
Also 4 conteynent, 4–6 contynent.
[a. OF. continent 12th c. in Littré, in our sense 1), ad. L. continēnt-em lit. ‘holding together’, hence ‘contiguous, connected, continuous’, also ‘holding oneself in, self-restraining, restraining one's passions’ (the latter the sense in which the word was first taken into the modern languages), pr. pple. of continēre: see contain.]
I. Holding in, restraining.
1. Self-restraining, or marked by self-restraint, esp. in relation to bodily passions, appetites, or indulgences; temperate.
| 1382 Wyclif Tit. i. 7 It bihoueth a bischop forto be..iust, hooly, contynent [continentem, ἐγκρατῆ; Tindale, etc. temperate]. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) III. 313 His deeth schewed that he was vertuous and contynent. 1605 Shakes. Lear i. ii. 182, I pray you haue a continent forbearance till the speed of his rage goes slower. 1635 N. R. tr. Camden's Hist. Eliz. iv. an. 33. 395 Of such continent moderation was he in coveting. 1841 Emerson Addr., Man the Reformer Wks. 1875 II. 247 Not..a subject of irregular and interrupted impulses of virtue, but a continent, persisting, immovable person. 1885 Sir A. Grant Aristotle's Eth. I. xiii. note, In the continent and the incontinent man [τοῦ ἐγκρατοῦς καὶ ἀκρατοῦς] we praise the reason..but there appears also to be something else in them..which fights and strives against the reason. |
2. spec. Characterized by self-restraint in the matter of sexual indulgence; chaste.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. de P.R. xviii. i. (1495) 738 Some beestes ben contynent and chaste alwayes : as bein. 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 34/4 The chore or quyer signefieth the continente. And the body sygnefyeth thordre of them that ben maryed. 1581 Marbeck Bk. of Notes 59 Saint Paule foretelleth of Antichrists disciples, that they shall beare a great countenaunce of continent life, & forbid mariage. 1623 Cockeram, Continent, chaste [1626 sober]. 1882 Syd. Soc. Lex., Continent..practising continence. |
| transf. 1576 Holinshed Chron. III. 20 The shamefull villanie..was such, as honest eares would be ashamed to heare, and continent toongs to speake thereof. |
† 3. Restraining, restrictive. Obs.
(Both quots. may be in sense 2; at least there is app. a play on that sense.)
| 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. i. i. 262 Contrary to thy established proclaymed Edict and Continent Cannon. 1605 ― Macb. iv. iii. 64 My Desire All continent Impediments would orebeare, That did oppose my will. |
b. Holding in, keeping back, retentive of. rare.
| 1840 Carlyle Heroes vi, I am continent of my thought hitherto. |
4. Containing; capable of containing, capacious. rare.
| [1580: cf. continent n. 1.] [1605: cf. content n.1 1 b.] 1856 Dobell Hero's Grave, The round Of the dull continent flesh. 1867 Trench Gospel Stud. vii, Old vessels..continent of the new life. 1870 Pall Mall G. 9 Aug. 12 Fashion..is as continent as the Black-hole in Calcutta. |
5. Med. Having normal voluntary control over one's excretory functions. Opp. incontinent a. 3.
| 1941 Amer. Jrnl. Obstetr. & Gynecol. XLI. 1051 Two patients are now continent. 1958 Jrnl. Urol. LXXX. 344/1 The dogs..were perfectly continent between voidings even during running and jumping. 1979 Urologia Internat. XXXIV. 172 No signs of a stress incontinence could be objectified in the women of group II, even though, according to their own statements, they were not completely continent. |
II. [from L. continēre (intr.) to hold together, be continuous.]
† 6. Holding or hanging together in space. a. Cohering, continuous, or uninterrupted in itself. continent land: land extending connectedly or continuously over a large space: see continent n. 3, 4.
| a 1470 Tiptoft Caesar xiii. (1530) 18 Cesar before entendyd to ly that winter tyme in contynent land. 1555 Eden Decades W. Ind. 310 Affirmynge that those landes are from thense continent and greate. 1569 Grafton Chron. iv. (1809) I. 28 The mayne and continent land of the whole worlde. 1648 Gage West. Ind. xii. (1655) 55 Being the same continued continent land. |
† b. Connected to or with, continuous with. Obs.
| c 1590 Marlowe Faust. iii. 109 Ile ioyne the hils that binde the Affricke shore And make that country continent to Spaine. 1605 Verstegan Dec. Intell. iv. (1628) 88 It is shewed to haue beene continent or firme land with Gallia. 1612 Brerewood Lang. & Relig. xiii. 118 Those parts of Asia and America are continent one with the other. 1614 Raleigh Hist. World II. v. vi. §7. 443 These [bridges] were covered with plankes and turfe; that they might seeme continent with the ground. 1692 Ray Dissol. World ii. v. (1732) 207 Great Britain was anciently Continent to Gaul. |
7. Continuous in duration; not intermittent. (Old Med. and Phys.) † a. continent fever: see quots. Obs.
| 1684 tr. Bonet's Merc. Compit. vi. 158 Galen..cures Continent and Continual fevers onely by bleeding. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Continent Feaver, is that which performs its Course without any Intermission, or Abatement. 1776–83 Cullen First Lines § 28 Wks. I. 488 A Continent Fever. |
† b. continent cause [mod.L. causa continens, F. cause continente]: see quots. 1706, 1753. Obs.
| 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. x. §5 In that is the cause continent of many diseases. 1656 Ridgley Pract. Physick 95 The continent cause is evacuated by purging. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Continent Cause of a Distemper, is that on which the Disease depends so immediately, that it continues so long as that remains, and ceases when the said Cause is remov'd. 1707 Floyer Physic. Pulse-Watch 53 The continent causes of the Pulse are the strength of the Spirits, and the irritation of the Blood. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v. Cause, Continent, conjunct, or proximate Cause, that principle in the body which immediately adheres to the disease, and which being present, the disease is also present. |
8. as adv.
| 1536 Primer Hen. VIII, 145 And yet I love Him continent, My faith in Him is not mispent. |
▪ II. continent, n.
(ˈkɒntɪnənt)
[ad. L. continēnt-em (in senses I and II), subst. use of pr. pple. of continēre: see prec. and contain. It. continente mainland is in Florio, 1598; the Fr. is not in Cotgr. 1611.]
I. A containing agent or space.
1. a. That which contains or holds. Now rare or arch.
| 1541 R. Copland Guydon's Quest. Chirurg., The contenauntes that be without, fyrst ben the heares, than the lether or skynne, & than the flesshe. 1580 North Plutarch (1676) 263 A Cylinder..containing a massie sphere, with an inscription, of the proportion, whereof the continent exceedeth the thing contained. 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. ii. i. 92 Fogges..falling in the Land, Hath euerie petty Riuer made so proud, That they haue ouer-borne their Continents. 1606 ― Ant. & Cl. iv. xiv. 40 Heart, once be stronger then thy Continent, Cracke thy fraile Case. 1615 T. Adams White Devil 62 The bagge is a continent to money and the world is a continent to the bagge. 1763 Churchill Duellist i. Poems II. 7 Earthquakes..Rive their concealing continent. 1868 G. Macdonald Seaboard Par. II. v. 66 Stealing from the significance of the content by the meretricious grandeur of the continent. 1886 Stevenson Dr. Jekyll ii. (ed. 2) 26 Is it the mere radiance of a foul soul that thus transpires through..its clay continent? |
b. fig. That which comprises or sums up; summary, sum and substance (sometimes not distinguishable from content, that which is contained). Now rare or arch.
| 1590 Greene Neuer too late (1600) 23 They be women, and therefore the continents of all excellence. 1596 Shakes. Merch. V. iii. ii. 131 Here's the scroule, The continent, and summarie of my fortune. 1604 ― Ham. v. ii (Qo.), You shall find in him the continent of what part a gentleman would see. 1638 Laud Conf. with Fisher §14, I did not say that the Book of Articles onely was the Continent of the Church of Englands publique Doctrine. She is not so narrow. 1643 Symmons Loyal Subjects Beliefe 61 Rebellion..is the continent and cause of all sin. 1788 tr. Swedenborg's Wisd. Angels iii. §216. 177 The Ultimate is the Complex, Continent and Basis of Things prior. 1869 W. Mitchell Truthseeker s.v. Change 184 Nowhere do we find the power itself but only the continent of the power. |
† 2. Containing area, space, or bulk; capacity; = content n.1 5, 6. Obs.
| a 1608 Sir F. Vere Comm. (1631) 124 The whole plot of continent sufficient to receive eight or nine hundred men. 1615 Markham Eng. Housew. ii. vii. (1668) 169 The quantity..should ever be answerable to the continent of your Cistern. 1660 R. Coke Power & Subj. 78 There never was in so small a Continent so great a number of people. 1666 Ashmole Diary (1774) 385 [The goblet] being of so large a continent, past the hands of thirty to pledge. |
II. Continuous land, mainland.
† 3. a. A connected or continuous tract of land. Obs. (Cf. continent a. 6.)
| 1559 W. Cuningham Cosmogr. Glasse 113 Continens..is a portion of th' Earth, which is not parted by the Seas asounder [margin has Continent]. 1599 Hakluyt Voy. II. Ded. 3 That large and fruitfull continent of the West Indies. 1609 P. Erondelle (title), Nova Francia: or the Description of that part of New France which is one Continent with Virginia. 1611 Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. vii. v. §1. 214 [Kent] contained the Continent that lieth betwixt our East-Ocean and the Riuer Thames. 1657 S. W. Schism Dispatch't 541 A Primacy, that is, the highest in that continent [Ireland]. 1667 Milton P.L. x. 392 And made one Realm Hell and this World, one Realm, one Continent Of easie thorough-fare. 1677 Earl of Orrery Art of War 133 All the continents of Europe. |
† b. The land as opposed to the water, etc.; ‘terra firma’; the earth. Obs.
| 1590 Marlowe 2nd Pt. Tamburl. i. i, He That with the cannon shook Vienna wall, And made it dance upon the continent. 1590 Spenser F.Q. iii. v. 25 The carcas with the streame was carried downe, But th' head fell backeward on the Continent. 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, iii. i. 47 Make Mountaines leuell, and the Continent melt it selfe Into the Sea. |
† c. The ‘solid globe’ or orb of the sun or moon. Obs.
| 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. v. i. 278 All those sayings, will I..keepe as true in soule, As doth that Orbed Continent, the fire, That seuers day from night. 1667 Milton P.L. v. 422 Nor doth the Moon no nourishment exhale From her moist Continent to higher Orbes. |
† 4. a. esp. The main land, as distinguished from islands, islets, or peninsulas; mainland. Obs. exc. as in b, or when referring to one of the recognized continents of modern Geography: see 5.
| 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 284 Islanders covet the commodities of the continent, or firme ground. 1605 Verstegan Dec. Intell. iv. (1628) 111 No more then men will euer carry foxes..out of our continent into the Ile of Wight. a 1661 Fuller Worthies (1840) III. 506 A small fret (known by the peculiar name of Menai) sunderith it from the Welch continent. 1725 De Foe Voy. round W. (1840) 110 It is not known whether that country be an island or the continent. 1745 E. Haywood Female Spect. (1748) III. 291 She cried out we were on the continent of Summatra. 1786 Gilpin Mts. & Lakes Cumbrld. I. 137 The grandeur of each part of the continent is called in..to aid the insignificance of the island [in Windermere]. 1808 Scott Marm. iii. xx, Threatening both continent and isle, Bute, Arran, Cunninghame, and Kyle. 1862 Ansted Channel Isl. ii. xii. (ed. 2) 301 They are also continental,—continental of the continent of France. |
b. spec. the Continent: the mainland of Europe, as distinguished from the British Isles. (Orig. a specific use of 4; now commonly referred to 5.)
| [1590 Sir J. Smyth Disc. Weapons 27 b, They are in the continent, where everie kingdome and state doth joyne one to another without anie partition of sea.] 1601 R. Johnson Kingd. & Commw. (1603) 68 In these times the legions of Britanie were transported into the contenent. c 1654 Waller Panegyr. Ld. Protector xxvi, Holland..is content To be our outguard on the Continent. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 291 Men who had travelled much on the continent. 1873 Mrs. Alexander The Wooing o't xviii, She was going back to the Continent with her husband. |
5. a. One of the main continuous bodies of land on the earth's surface.
Formerly two continents were reckoned, the Old and the New; the former comprising Europe, Asia, and Africa, which form one continuous mass of land; the latter, North and South America, forming another. (These two continents are strictly islands, distinguished only by their extent.) Now it is usual to reckon four or five continents, Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, North and South; the great island of Australia is sometimes reckoned as another, and geographers have speculated on the existence of an Antarctic Continent.
| 1614 Brerewood Enquiries (1635) 119 Europe, Afrique, and Asia..the south or Antarctique continent, etc. 1622–62 Heylin Cosmogr. Introd. (1674) 18/2 A Continent is a great quantity of Land, not seperated by any Sea from the rest of the World, as the whole Continent of Europe, Asia, Africa. 1625 N. Carpenter Geog. Del. ii. vii. 115 Toward the North are placed the great continents of Europe, Asia, almost all Africa and the greatest part of America. 1727 Chambers Cycl. s.v., The world is ordinarily divided into two grand continents: the old and the new. 1813 Butler Geog. ii, The left or Western Hemisphere contains the two Continents of North and South America. Ibid. iv, New Holland, an immense Island, which some geographers dignify with the appellation of another continent. 1856 Froude Hist. Eng. (1858) I. i. 59 A new continent had risen up beyond the western sea. 1873 C. Robinson N.S. Wales 79 Sydney—once the capital of the Australian Continent..remains the metropolis of New South Wales. |
b. transf. A continuous mass or extent of land of any kind, of ice, or the like.
| 1786 Gilpin Mts. & Lakes Cumbrld. I. 187 Detached from this continent of precipice, if I may so speak, stands a rocky hill. 1862 Ruskin Munera P. (1880) 173 The forests which now make continents of fruitful land pathless and poisonous. |
c. fig.
| 1742 Young Nt. Th. iv. 663 From nature's continent, immensely wide, Immensely blest, this little isle of life..Divides us. 1843 Carlyle Past & Pr. (1858) 78 Continents of parchment. 1878 R. W. Dale Lect. Preach. iv. 90 The broad continent of the intellectual and moral life of man. |
d. Comb., as continent-country, continent-island, one approaching in size to a continent; continent-wide a., throughout a (specified) continent.
| 1888 Pall Mall G. 23 Jan., In none of the great Indian Empires of the ages that are past, had any such union of the diverse peoples of this continent-country been effected. 1936 M. Franklin All that Swagger xiii. 123 His practice of equality with all men foreran a continent-wide experiment. a 1963 L. MacNeice Astrology (1964) ix. 278 These predictions set off a continent-wide panic. |
† 6. Amer. Hist. Applied, during and immediately after the War of Independence, as a collective name for the revolting colonies (which ultimately became the United States). Cf. continental a. 3.
| 1774 Gouv. Morris in Sparks Life & Writ. (1832) I. 27 Uniting the whole continent in one grand legislature. 1781 T. Jefferson Corr. (1859) I. 304 There are some collections of forage and provisions belonging to the Continent, and some to the State. c 1784 S. Osgood in Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc. V. 465 The plan for settling the accounts of the several states with the Continent. |
III. [subst. use of continent a. 1.]
7. Eccl. Hist. = Encratite.
| 1702 Echard Eccl. Hist. (1710) 500 Justin's scholar, Tatian..formed a new sect called by the name of Encratites, or Continents. |
† 8. A continent person; a married person or widow under vow of continency. Obs. (Cf. penitent.)
| 1494 Will of Rogers (Somerset Ho.), I Pernell the continent of Criste & late wif of, etc. a 1641 Bp. R. Montagu Acts & Mon. (1642) 72 With other holy Saints, Virgins, Confessors, Continents, and Ascetæ. |