Hent
verb ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 To take hold of, to grasp. obsolete
"1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, "The Pardoner's Tale", The Canterbury Tales, republished 1897 [Clarendon Press], Walter W. Skeat (editor), Chaucer's Works: Volume 4, 2018 reprint, Outlook Verlag, page 533, This cursed man hath in his hond y-hent / This poyson in a box, and sith he ran / In-to the nexte strete, un-to a man, / And borwed [of] him large botels three;"
- 2 To take away, carry off, apprehend. obsolete
- 3 To clear; to go beyond. obsolete, transitive
Example
More examples"1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, "The Pardoner's Tale", The Canterbury Tales, republished 1897 [Clarendon Press], Walter W. Skeat (editor), Chaucer's Works: Volume 4, 2018 reprint, Outlook Verlag, page 533, This cursed man hath in his hond y-hent / This poyson in a box, and sith he ran / In-to the nexte strete, un-to a man, / And borwed [of] him large botels three;"
Etymology
From Middle English henten (also hynten, hinten > English hint), from Old English hentan (“to pursue, chase after, seize, arrest, grasp”), from Proto-West Germanic *hantijan, from Proto-Germanic *hantijaną (“to seize”), related to Icelandic henta (“to suit, beseem”), Old English huntian (“to hunt”), Old High German hunda (“spoils, booty”).
Related phrases
More for "hent"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.