I. ˈken verb
( kenned also kend -nd ; or kent -nt ; kenned also kend or kent ; kenning ; kens )
Etymology: Middle English kennen; partly from Old English cennan to make known, declare, acknowledge; partly from Old Norse kenna to perceive, know; both akin to Old High German kennen to make known, Gothic kannjan; causatives from the root of Old English cunnan to know — more at can
transitive verb
1. archaic : to have sight of : see
as far as I could ken thy chalky cliffs, … I stood upon the hatches in the storm — Shakespeare
2. now dialect : to recognize by or as if by sight : discern
kenned in the beautiful lady the child of his friend — S.T.Coleridge
3. now chiefly Scotland
a. : to have acquaintance with
have kend every wench in the Halidome of St. Mary's — Sir Walter Scott
b. : to have knowledge of
it was getting dark, and they didn't ken the ground like us — John Buchan
c. : to have awareness or understanding of
do ye ken what ye're saying, man? — William Black
4. Scots law : to admit to ownership of heritable property
intransitive verb
1. now chiefly Scotland : to have knowledge : know
it was his father then ye kent of — Sir Walter Scott
2. obsolete : to have the power of sight
spaces distant from them as far as a man may ken — Marchamont Needham
II. noun
( -s )
1. obsolete : the distance that bounds the range of ordinary vision especially at sea
are safely come within a ken of Dover — John Lyly
2.
a. : the range of vision
then felt I like some watcher of the skies when a new planet swims into his ken — John Keats
b. : the sight or view especially of a place or person
'tis double death to drown in ken of shore — Shakespeare
c. : the power or exercise of vision
searched with fixed ken to know what place it was wherein I stood — H.F.Cary
3. : the range of recognition, comprehension, perception, understanding, or knowledge
abstract words that are beyond the ken of young children — Lois M. Rettie
all knowledge and experience come within the historian's ken — W.G.Carleton
Synonyms: see range
III. noun
( -s )
Etymology: probably short for kennel
: house ; especially : a rowdy resort for thieves and beggars
has fishwives and boozing kens enough to supply all of America — Kenneth Roberts
IV. noun
( -s )
Etymology: Japanese, literally, fist
: a Japanese game of forfeits