Volume 1

A dictionary of the English language: in which the words are deduced from their originals, and illustrated in their different significations by examples from the best writers. To which are prefixed, a history of the language, and an English grammar / by Samuel Johnson.

  • Johnson, Samuel, 1709-1784.
Date:
1755
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A dictionary of the English language: in which the words are deduced from their originals, and illustrated in their different significations by examples from the best writers. To which are prefixed, a history of the language, and an English grammar / by Samuel Johnson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    KEN The prifon ftrong. Within whofe keep the captive knights were laid : Was one partition of the palace-wall. Dry den. 2. Guardianlhip; reftraint. Youth is leaft looked into when they ftand in moft need of good keep and regard. Ajcham. Ke'eper. n. f [from keep.] I. One who holds any thing for the ufe of another. The good old man having neither reafon to diffuade, nor hopes to perfuade, received the things with the mind of a keeper, not of an owner. Sidney. ■2. One who has pril’oners in cuftody. The keeper of the prifon, call to him. Shakcjpeare. Io now With horns exalted ftands, and feems to lowe : A noble charge ; her keeper by her fide To watch her walks his hundred eyes apply’d. Dryden. A pleafant beverage he prepar’d before, Of wine and water mix’d, with added ftorc Of opium ; to his keeper this he brought, Who {wallowed unaware the fleepy draught. Dryden. 3. One who has the care of parks, or beafts of chafe. There is an old tale goes, that Herne the hunter, Sometime a keeper here in Windfor foreft, Doth all the Winter-time, at ftill of midnight. Walk round about an oak with ragged horns. Shakefp. The firft fat buck of all the feafon’s fent. And keeper takes no fee in compliment. Dryden. 4. One that has the fuperintendence or care of any thing. Hilkiah went unto Hildah, keener of the wardrobe. 2 King. Ke'eper of the great feal. [cu/tos magni jigilli, Latin.] Is a lord by his office, and called lord keeper of the great feal of Eng¬ land, &c. and is of the king’s privy-council, under whole hands pafs all charters, commiffions, and grants of the king, ilrengthened by the great or broad feal, without which feal all fuch inftruments by law are of no force ; lor the king is, in interpretation and intendment of law, a corporation, and therefore paffeth nothing firmly, but under the great leal. This lord keeper, by the liatute of 5 Eliz. c. 18. hath the like jurifdi&ion, and all other advantages, as hath the lord chancellor of England. Cowell. Ke'epership. n. f. [from keeper.] Office of a keeper. The common gaol of the (hire is kept at Launcefton : this keeperjhip is annexed to the conftablelhip of the caftle. Carcw’s Survey of Cornwall. Keg. n.f. [caque, French.] A final 1 barrel, commonly ufed for a filh barrel. Kell, n.f A fort of pottage. Ainf. It is fo called in Scot¬ land, being a foupe made with fhreded greens. Kell. n.f. The omentum; that which inwraps the guts. T he very weight of bowels and keif in fat people, is the occafion of a rupture. IViJeman s Surgery. Kelp. n.f. A lalt'produced from calcined lea-weed. In making alum, the workmen ufe the alhes of a fea-weed called kelp, and urine. Boyle on Colours. Ke'lson. n.f. [more properly keelfon.] The wood next the keel. We have added clole pillars in the royal {hips, which b.e- ing faftened from the kelfon to the beams of the fecond deck, keep them from fettling, or giving way. Raleigh. Ke'lter. n. f. [He is not in keltcr, that is, he is not ready ; from kilter, to gird, Danifh. Skinner. ] To Kemb. v. a. [ccemban, Saxon; kammen, German: now written, perhaps lefs properly, to cotnb.] T o feparate or dil- entangle by a denticulated inftrument. Yet are the men more loofe than they, More kemb'd and bath’d, and rubb’d and trim’d. More fieek.. Bcnj. Johnfon. Thy head and hair are fieek ; And then thou kemb'Jl the tuzzes on thy cheek. Dryden. To Ken. v. a. [cennan, Saxon; ktnnan, Dutch, to know.] 1. To fee at a diftance ; to defery. At once as far as angels ken, he views The difmal fituation, wafte and wild. Milton''s Par. Lojl. The next day about evening we faw, within a kenning, be¬ fore us thick clouds, which did put us in fome hope of land. Bacon's New Atlantis. If thou kcn'Jl from far. Among the Pleiads, a new-kindled ftar ; ’Tis Ihe that fhines in that propitious light. Dryden. We ken them from afar, the fetting fun Plays on their {hilling arms. Addifon. 2. To know. ’Tis he, I ken the manner of his gate. Shakefp. Now plain I ken whence love his rife begun : Sure he was born fome bloody butcher’s Ion, Bred up in fhambles. Gay s Pojl. Ken. n.f. [from the verb.] View; reach of fight. Lo ! within a ken, our army lies. Shakefp. Henry IV. When from the mountain top Pilanio fliew’d thee, Thou waft within a ken. Shakefp. Cymhcline. It was a hill IC E R Of paradife the higheft; from whofe top The hemifphere of earth, in cleareft ken, Stretch’d out to th’ ampleft reach of profpe£f, lay. Milton. He loon Saw within ken a glorious angel ftand. Milton» Rude, as their {hips, was navigation then; No ufeful compafs or meridian known : Coafting they kept the land within their ken, And knew the North but when the pole-ftar {hone. Dryd. When we confider the reafons we have to think, that wha£ lies within our ken is but a fmalj part of the univerfe, we {hall difeover an huge abyfs of ignorance. Locke. Ke'nnel. n.f [chenif French.] 1. A cot for dogs. A dog fure, if he could fpeak, had wit enough to deferibe his kennel. •* Sidney. From forth the kennel of thy womb hath crept A hell-hound, that doth hunt us all to death. Shakefp. The feditious remain within their ftation, which, by rea¬ fon of the naftinefs of the beaftly multitude, might be more fitly termed a kennel than a camp. Hayward. 2. A number of dogs kept in a kennel. A little herd of England’s tim’rous deer. Maz’d with a yelping kennel of French curs. Shakefpeare. 3. The hole of a fox, or other beaft. 4. [Kennel, Dutch; chenal, Fr. canalis, Latin.] The water- courfe of a ftreet. Bad humours gather to a a bile; or, as divers kennels flow to one fink, fo in Ihort time their numbers increafed. Hayw. He always came in fo dirty, as if he had been dragged through the kennel at a boarding-fchool. Arbuthnot. To Ke'nnel. v. n. [from kennel.] To lie; to dwell: ufed of beafts, and of man in contempt. Yet, when they lift, would creep, If ought difturb’d their noife, into her womb. And kennel there; yet there ftill bark’d and howl’d Within, unfeen. Milton's Par. Lojl, b. ii. The dog kennelled in a hollow tree, and the cock roofted upon the boughs. L EJlrange s Fables. Kept. pret. and part. palf. of keep. Kerche'if. n.f. [covrecheif, Chaucer; couvre, to cover, and ' chef the head; and hence a handkercheif to wipe the face or hands.] 1. A head drefs. I fee how thine eye would emulate the diamond ; thou haft the right arched bent of the brow, that becomes the tire vailant. —A plain kerchief Sir John ; my brows become nothing elfe. Shakefp. Merry Wives of Windfor. The proudeft kerchief of the court {hall reft Well fatisfy’d of what they love the beft. Dryden. 2. Any cloath ufed in drefs. O ! what a time have you chofe out, brave Caius, To wear a kerchief. Shakefp. Julius Ccrfar. Every man had a large kercheif folded about the neck. Hayivard. Kerche ifed. 1 v [from kercheif] Dreffed; hooded. Kercheift. 5 J L J The evening comes Kercheift in a comely cloud, While racking winds are piping loud. Milton. Kerf. n.f. [ceoppan, Saxon, to cut.] The fawn-away flit between two pieces of fluff is called a perf Moxons Mech. Exercife. Ke'rmes. n.f. Kertncs is a roundifh body, of the bignefs of a pea, and of a brownilh red colour, covered when moft perfect with a purplifh grey duft. It contains a multitude of little diftindt granules, loft, and when crufhed yield a fcarlet juice. It is found adhering to a kind of holm oak, and^ till lately was generally underftood to be a vegetable excrelcence ; but we now know it to be the extended body of an animal parent, filled with a numerous offspring, which are the little red granules. mi. Kern, n.f [an Irifti word.] Irifh foot foldier; an Irifh boor. Out of the fry of thefe rake-hell horfeboys, growing up in knavery and villainy, are their kearn fupplied. Spenjer. No fooner juftice had with valour arm’d, Compell’d thefe {kipping kernes to truft their heels, But the Norweyan lord, lurveving advantage, Began a frelh aflault. x Shakcjpeare s Macbeth. If in good plight thefe Northern kerns arrive. Then does fortune promife fair. Philips s Briton. Kern. n.f. A hand-mill confifting of two pieces of ftone, by which corn is ground. It is ftill ufed in fome parts of Scotland. To Kern. v. n. [probably from kernel, or, by change of a vowel, corrupted from corn.] 1. To harden as ripened corn. When the price of corn falleth, men break no more ground than will fupply their own turn, wherethrough it falleth out that an ill kerned or laved harveft foon emptieth their old ftore. Carew's Survey of Cornwall.