1606 in R. Pitcairn Criminal Trials Scotl. II. 519 The said W. R., haifing ane grit grene Kent and squarit batoun in his hand.

a1700 N. Burn in Ramsay Tea-t. Misc. (1733) II. 196 Shepherds..With cur and kent upon the bent.

1721 A. Ramsay Robert Richy & Sandy 19 A better lad ne'er lean'd out o'er a kent.

1890 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Sept. 328/2 He placed his long pole or kent in front of him.

1844 M. A. Richardson Local Historian's Table Bk. Legendary Div. II. 175 (note) When the stream is of equal depth, a kent or pole is used. [So on the Tweed and Teviot in 1850.]

1820 W. Scoresby Acct. Arctic Regions II. 296 The fat of the neck, or what corresponds in other animals with the neck, is called the Kent.

1837 R. Hamilton Nat. Hist. Ordinary Cetacea or Whales (Naturalist's Libr.: Mammalia VI) 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.

1875 R. Hunt & F. W. Rudler Ure's Dict. Arts (ed. 7) 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.

1809 D. Price Syst. Sheep-grazing Romney Marsh iv. 186 The New Leicester breed..were ripe for the slaughter-house in April, whereas the South Down and the Kents would not be so till the latter end of the summer.

1809 D. Price Syst. Sheep-grazing Romney Marsh iv. 201 The Kent sheep being 65 lb. lighter than the Leicesters..makes the gainings of the Kent sheep in the whole 152 lb. of mutton.

1891 R. Wallace Rural Econ. Austral. & N.Z. Pl. lxix (caption) Romney Marsh or Kent Sheep.

1894 Country Gentlemen's Catal. 52/1 Sheep—Kent or Romney Marsh. Bred by owner.

1957 Encycl. Brit. XX. 476/1 The Romney is a long-coarse-wool, white-face, hardy, polled sheep that originated in Kent, Eng. It is sometimes called the Kent or the Romney Marsh.

1960 Farmer & Stockbreeder 8 Mar. 15/1 Grassland types [of sheep] include..Greyface and Kent.

1972 Country Life 16 Mar. 607/1 The sheep..can break down organo~phosphates by blood enzymes. Among Dorset Downs 3 per cent could do this efficiently..and among Kent 37 per cent.

1513 G. Douglas tr. Virgil Æneid i. x. 52 My childe, cleith the with ȝone kennit [v.r. kend] childis visage.

a1796 R. Burns Poems & Songs (1968) I. 324 You'll easy draw a lang-kent face.

1796 H. Macneill Waes o' War i. 6 Far frae ilk kent spot she wander'd.

1888 Stevenson in Scribner's Mag. May 635 A gentleman..should mean a man of family, ‘one of a kent house’.

1820 W. Scott Abbot III. viii. 261 They will row very slow..or kent where depth permits, to avoid noise.

1846 M. A. Richardson Local Historian's Table Bk. (new ed.) Legendary Div. II. 175 A man had just been kented over the Tweed.

1820 W. Scoresby Acct. Arctic Regions II. 296 By means of it, the fish is turned over or kented.

1856 J. 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.